A 26-ROOM boutique hotel has been revealed as the centrepiece of the development proposal for the Kempsey Shire Council-owned car park site at Crescent Head.
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The concept is for a two-storey building that provides for the hotel, 300 sq m of retail floor space, a function room, hotel restaurant, basement parking and offset parking within the village.
The developers do not want to be identified at this time.
They are based on the Mid North Coast and have links to the Macleay.
Council representatives were due to unveil the plan at a community meeting at Crescent Head last night, organised by the Crescent Head Ratepayers and residents Association.
The 1020 sq m car park is located opposite the Crescent Head Country Club and is zoned for commercial purposes permitting retail, business, entertainment and community activity.
Any development at the site is restricted to an 8.5m height limit and is required to retain existing parking as well as providing for its own parking needs.
Council’s director of Sustainable Environment Robert Pitt yesterday outlined the process surrounding the recent Expression of Interest and provided details regarding the concept.
Mr Pitt said the Expression of Interest process was endorsed by the council in June 2013 as the preferred course of action to respond to an initial inquiry received for the site from a potential developer.
“After receiving the inquiry, council decided to put out a general Expression of Interest, open to everyone, to consider any development proposals for the site,” Mr Pitt said.
The call for Expressions of interest was advertised in July and August.
While numerous inquiries were made, just one official EOI was received.
“The council is currently assessing the merits of the EOI with input from the community,” Mr Pitt said.
“The purpose of (last night’s) scheduled meeting was to obtain feedback from the community which will be incorporated in council’s negotiations with the developer.
“One of the reasons why we have not consulted with the community before now is we literally had nothing to consult them about.
“The plans are at a very early stage of development and we are in no rush to proceed.
“The community will be given a further opportunity to make formal submissions that will be included in a report to council to consider whether to proceed to sell the land.”
Mr Pitt emphasised that because of the location of the development final planning approval for any development was in the hands of the Northern Joint Planning Panel, which is made up of three state and two local representatives.
“The local members of the panel are the mayor of Nambucca and a director from their council," Mr Pitt said.
"This avoids any conflict of interest and means any decision can be made on its merits free from other local influences."