SECRET REPORT TO DECIDE ROUNDHOUSE FATE

From an Ocean Shores Community Association Press Release.

A decision on the fate of the Roundhouse site will be made this week. A Confidential Report (14.2 in the Byron Shire Council Agenda for Thursday, April 18^th), advises councillors about a new agreement for easements with the Ocean Shores Country Club for Council’s proposed 11 lot subdivision of the Roundhouse site, prior to issuing tenders for subdivision.

The Report states:

“The purpose of this report is to advise Council that a new agreement has been finalised and to report the matter to Council prior to seeking tenders for the works associated with construction of the subdivision.”

The Report is confidential, so the community may never know the reasons if Council votes to go ahead with the subdivision, as the report recommends.

The Ocean Shores and wider Byron community have been fighting for years to stop this land being subdivided by Council and sold. Instead, the Roundhouse Action Group and the OSCA have requested Council many times to dedicate this land for public use as a cultural precinct. 

The vision of RAG and OSCA and 90% of the local community is that the land be retained for public use.

In a Shire famous for its cultural arts, Byron Council has never provided a permanent public art gallery. The Roundhouse Action Group has long advocated for a public cultural building on the Roundhouse site, incorporating gallery, museum, theatre, cinema, restaurant and archival space. This can be done as a long term project without putting an economic burden on the Council.

The Roundhouse site is Heritage listed in Council’s Heritage plan. It will always be associated with the founding of the town of Ocean Shores and, prior to that, with the regional dairy industry, the major economic driver of the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries. Jack Bower’s farmhouse “Oceanview” was on the site of the Roundhouse knoll.

RAG and OSCA call on the new Councillors to keep their word made at the Ocean Shores Community Centre prior to the Council election and not subdivide the Roundhouse site, but retain it for public use as a cultural precinct. As one candidate, now councillor stated, “the Roundhouse site is a jewel in the crown of Ocean Shores”

Each Councillor has the right to a current appraisal of property market conditions and a 2013 replacement of the old, long superseded 2001 business plan which is the basis for previous decisions to subdivide. A land subdivision requires considerable borrowings, and is a risky enterprise, especially in a time of economic uncertainty.

The community agrees that the Roundhouse site is iconic and unique and should remain in public hands. .

RAG and OSCA ask for the opportunity to manage the land under a lease arrangement, similar to other council property in the Shire, and that at long last, Council works with, rather than against the community, to present a report to Council on the public cultural community use of the Roundhouse.

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The Challenge

The Challenge facing the Roundhouse Action Group (RAG) is formidable.

Within six months, RAG must present a business plan to the Byron Shire Council which provides a viable and profitable alternative to the recommendations presently before Council.

The Roundhouse Site is classified as an 'operational' asset of council which means that it is not currently preserved for community purposes but can be sold, leased or otherwise committed to a purpose which provides a financial return to council.

The history of the site and the circumstances leading to the situation we now deal with will be revealed by your humble scribe through the ensuing posts on this blog.

One important aspect of the Challenge is to present a proposal to Council that RAG can confidently assert represents the community view of how the Roundhouse Site might be developed for the benefit of the community in a financially viable way.

Certainly, the driving motive for many of us is the establishment of a noble structure on the most noble site in Ocean Shores. Something that will be of benefit for the community for many years is our objective. We need to have the wider Ocean Shores community with us and we need to achieve a consensus on the use of this site in a community which, we recognise, feels relatively poorly served in terms of facilities for youth, sport and culture.

I am Secretary of the Ocean Shores Community Association (OSCA) which is the umbrella organisation for RAG. In my blogging on this site, however, the views I express are mine and are not necessarily endorsed by OSCA or RAG when posted.

This blog is intended to be a source of current news and I stand to be corrected by the groups I serve.

For the time being, I hold a view that the best way to achieve a community view is through dialogue rather than through surveys at Ocean Shores shopping centre and I hope that this blog will be a medium for achieving that dialogue.

Roger

Reprieve on Roundhouse Site

A report on the front page of The Byron Shire Echo of 29 June 2010 announced to Ocean Shores that the recently formed Roundhouse Action Group (RAG) had succeeded in its attempt to have the Byron Shire Council defer a decision on a sale of the Roundhouse Site pending a business plan from RAG for a community facility on the site:

'A decision on the Roundhouse site at Ocean Shores emerged at Byron Shire Council’s meeting last Thursday. Residents of Ocean Shores put in one last effort to sway the council and at the eleventh hour were granted a six month reprieve to come up with a viable plan.'

The Council's resolution was passed 5-4. Not all those who spoke at the Council Public Access Session on the morning were supporters of RAG.

The people of the Byron Shire don’t owe Ocean Shores anything, Fast Buck$ (a former councillor) told the meeting.

No matter, there were smiles all round when Echo photographer Eve Jeffery assembled a group of supporters for a photoshoot on the steps up to the mound where the Roundhouse itself once stood.

Read the full report from the Echo