I CONGRATULATE The Mail for bringing to the attention of our community what I will now call the Rape of Gracetown by stealth.
It is fact that Landcorp (the State Governments’ Developers will double the size of Gracetown by adding a further 150 houses behind the existing townsite) and are now proposing a 4/5 star tourist development to be located between the South Point car park and the town oval.
When this tourist development was first mooted by the then Minister for Planning Alannah MacTiernan she told residents and community members it would be “a low-key, single-storey Rottnest Lodge-style development” run by the State Government “to cater for underprivileged people in WA who could normally afford to pay for a holiday in Gracetown”.
This idea itself was never fully accepted by the community because Ms MacTiernan could not tell anybody where she intended her tourist development to be located.
First it was to be built behind and to the south of the tennis courts.
Second it was to be on and around out oval.
Third, she proposed it to be built along and on the south of the Gracetown creek.
Now it’s all changed again and Landcorp have announced it will be built between the town oval and South Point car park and will no longer be run by the State Government.
It is to be sold to a developer who will on-sell it (strata title) to the public and others.
Landcorp have suggested the development will consist of a reception area, kiosk, café, lounge, swimming pool, barbecues, licensed restaurant, day spa and another kiosk as well as 50 or more multi-storey, two or three bedroom units.
Looking at the commercial content you surely have to ask yourself: when Gracetown already has two cafes, a kiosk and a licensed restaurant that barely makes a living now, why would Landcorp want to get a private developer to build four more?
When we are told we are rapidly running out of water and this entire development is to be a water saving creation, ecological viable and eco-friendly, why would you build a swimming pool that will need to be continually filled and maintained on a daily basis?
Perhaps it doesn’t make sense to use the big Indian Ocean swimming pool barely 100m away.
And I wonder what is meant by day spa?
I am reliably informed this could mean anything from a beauty salon to a ‘knock shop’.
And a lounge bar–lounge bar/hotel/tavern, it’s all the same–is it really wanted or needed and in the middle of town?
Surely that’s not good planning.
It appears Landcorp couldn’t give a toss.
The whole concept has gone from being low-key, single storey Rottnest Lodge style chalets to a 4/5 star multi-storey, Gnarabup-style tourist development to be sold off by the State Government to private enterprise.
And Landcorp has the audacity to deny they haven’t upscaled the proposal.
Who are they trying to fool?
The proposal will hit the shire and their planning department in the very near future.
I call on all people who live in our Shire, especially Gracetown and Cowaramup district residents to tell the powers that be and our learned councillors this style of development is not wanted.
Write letters to your local members, talk to people and voice your opinion.
It is very important.
I also call on Barry House and Troy Buswell to come down to Gracetown, look at the location being proposed for this development, what is comprises of and step in and tell Landcorp to pull their heads in and stop this craziness.
Surely it would make a lot more sense not to have any tourist development whatsoever.
There is enough 4/5 star-type accommodation throughout the shire already.
Not to mention the 60 or more holiday homes to rent in Gracetown that all struggle to make ends meet.
Flooding the market with more is certainly not good planning and doesn’t make any sense at all.
Destroying all the bush and scrub that hold the fragile dunes together for some fancy multi- storey tourist development with its shops, day spas, kiosks, cafes, hotel and swimming pool and tearing down trees and bush in front of the existing shop and restaurant up to and around Percy Street to make more car parking space available is not eco-friendly, nor is it ecologically viable.
If Landcorp’s concept does go ahead it will end up looking the same as Gnarabup, and worse, be detrimental to the amenity of the area to the extreme.
Put a stop to it now while there is still a chance.