Peggy Balfour, Mullumbimby
I have been following the Roundhouse saga for some time and apparently unlike most of the councillors, senior staff and managers, I have read the extensive Local Government Report written on the Roundhouse following a local government investigation that was published in 1994.
WOW! What an entanglement of legal mish mash.
In short, readers may not be aware that Council spent over $2.75 million of ratepayer money trying to convince the court that the land should be zoned and valued for community purposes as an art gallery.
Despite Council adopting practices that led the investigators to consider recommending the matter to ICAC, in order not to pay the owners the correct value of the property, the council was eventually forced to acquire the building at its Highest and Best Use zoning, which is the law in acquisitions. The council also ultimately had to pay $1.4 million on top of the $2.75 million legals to acquire the property. The owners had to pay their own legals, which exceeded $750,000, and had to agree not to proceed against Council for defamatory comments made in Council minutes against them.
Having refused the owners the right to develop the land for 13 years the council immediately rezoned the land and demolished the Roundhouse building in order that they could develop it themselves.
They have failed completely to follow the recommendation in the Report, Chapter 5.20: ‘The community likewise has a right to participate in determining the ultimate use of the site. It will have to bear the cost of the acquisition as well as the cost of any development which the council might subsequently undertake. Having been led to believe that the council was going to acquire the site for community purposes, the community should be involved in deciding whether such a use of the land is still warranted and, if not, what strategies should be implemented for maximizing both the potential of the land and the benefits to the community which should accrue from any future development. If not that the council has, in fact, initiated a process of community consultation for this purpose.’
It’s about time Don Page had a hard look at this again. I believe the Ocean Shores Community has been denied justice.
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
