The message below was emailed on 14 March 2016 to all members and friends of Red Hill, to inform them of the status of the proposed housing development on the Federal Golf Club concessional lease.
To members of Red Hill Regenerators
I’m writing to update you on our discussions with the Federal Golf Club (FGC) and the proposed housing development to be undertaken by Mbark, a Sydney-based company.
The RHR Executive has held two joint meetings with FGC and Mbark. The meetings have been cordial and constructive. Unlike previous FGC proposals, the developer has listened to our concerns and made significant sacrifices to try to address these.
The first meeting on 22 January 2016 gave us a chance to outline our concerns. These concerns are listed in the notes from this meeting and here.
The second meeting on 22 February 2016 was to inform us of their revised plans. Since then, we understand that further changes have been made to the plans to address the concerns of Garran residents.
We were asked by Mbark not to communicate the content of our meetings until the FGC membership had been informed and this is the reason that we have not updated members before now.
Although Mbark’s plans are still fluid, our understanding of the current situation is that the development will not be situated on the disused fairway below the large pine trees alongside the entrance road to the Club but will be located in the region of the current clubhouse, carpark, practice area, gardeners’ area and the dam in that location. See the attached meeting notes for further details.
Two of our key concerns were the proximity of the development to the reserve (and therefore its impact on wildlife and the need for fire mitigation in the reserve and FGC lease) and issues associated with the upgrade of the entry road to the FGC.
The revised plans make significant progress to addressing these concerns and FGC/Mbark are keen to continue discussions to find ways towards addressing all our concerns.
RHR’s current position has been made abundantly clear to FGC/Mbark – any development will be detrimental to the reserve and so we are opposed to it. However, we are also keen to continue discussions with the FGC/Mbark.
Even though we don’t need to make a final decision on our position because the plans are so fluid, we would like to represent our members’ perspective in future negotiations. Consequently, The RHR Executive would appreciate as much feedback as possible from members.
We’re also considering holding a meeting of RHR and would like your advice as to whether that would be helpful.
At our Sunday activities, it is clear that there is a range of views amongst RHR members – all valid perspectives.
The RHR executive continues to liaise with a number of other groups that have an interest in this issue and we have been advised that a number of these groups would be pleased to support us.
To keep up to date, check our RHR website, the FGC website, the MBark website which has been established specifically about this development or make contact with us. If you’d like to discuss any issue, please call me or email us at info@redhillregenerators.org.au with your phone number and we’ll make contact with you.
Ross Kingsland
President