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Speaker 1: A City of Darwin councilor has moved a motion to

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Speaker 1: ensure that there is community consultation on all public land

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Speaker 1: sales following uncertainty around the parat Pool caretaker's residence. Now,

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Speaker 1: at a council meeting last Tuesday, Counselor Ed Smell proposed

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Speaker 1: that there be at least four weeks public notice for

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Speaker 1: sales and community engagement to hear people's views, with the

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Speaker 1: feedback reported to counsel to inform its decisions.

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Speaker 2: Now.

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Speaker 1: The councilor took to social media saying his motion passed

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Speaker 1: with full support of those in attendance and he joins

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Speaker 1: me in the studio right now. Good morning to.

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Speaker 2: You, Ed, Thanks Katie, good morning.

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Speaker 1: Now. Firstly, what's the update on the parat Pool caretaker's

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Speaker 1: residence because you and I have spoken previously about some

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Speaker 1: concerned residents in terms of them being worried that it

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Speaker 1: was going to be rezoned for community use and that

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Speaker 1: it could become a source for problems for the neighborhood.

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Speaker 1: But this is sort of why you move the motion two,

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Speaker 1: isn't it. So what's the update though on that caretaker's residence? First?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, that's right, Katie, that's why I have moved this

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Speaker 2: motion to change how we do things in the future

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Speaker 2: in terms of this the perhaps pool Caretaker's residents. At

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Speaker 2: that same meeting on Tuesday night, elective members decided to

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Speaker 2: proceed with the sale. So the subdivision, the rezoning, and

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Speaker 2: the sale. Yeah right, And that was on the back

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Speaker 2: we got the feedback from that expression of interest process.

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Speaker 2: There was very little to come out of that. So

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Speaker 2: on that basis and the feedback that we had from

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Speaker 2: the community, YEP, was very strong supporting a sale of

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Speaker 2: that property.

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Speaker 1: So it'll become like a residential property. Now that's you know,

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Speaker 1: that'll sort of be what happens in moving forward.

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Speaker 2: That's the process moving forward to subdivide, to rezone, and

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Speaker 2: then a sale process for that.

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Speaker 1: And so what was you know, what's been the feedback,

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Speaker 1: because I would assume you've probably been in contact then

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Speaker 1: with a lot of those residents who'd contacted you initially.

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Speaker 1: You know, I'm wondering what was going to happen and

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Speaker 1: worry about the rezoning. What's been their feedback?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, that's right, Katie. I emailed a number of residents

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Speaker 2: that got in touch with me to let them know

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Speaker 2: that the outcome and they were really appreciative of that,

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Speaker 2: and I think it really just shows the support for

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Speaker 2: that motion on Tuesday night that going forward we should

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Speaker 2: have this type of engagement. The community wants it. They

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Speaker 2: want to know what's going on in their street, in

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Speaker 2: their suburb. And so we've got a final report to

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Speaker 2: come back to Council from staff. They've just got to

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Speaker 2: check that the amendments reposed are all got to work

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Speaker 2: okay with our other plans, and so by June this

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Speaker 2: year we should have in place this process where we

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Speaker 2: always have community consultation when we're looking at selling public.

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Speaker 1: Land, which I think is fair enough, because you want

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Speaker 1: to make sure that whatever you sort of do, the

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Speaker 1: people that live most nearby or the people that are

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Speaker 1: closest to it and are going to potentially be impacted

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Speaker 1: by it, are able to have their say, right.

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Speaker 2: Absolutely, Cattie, And I think that was my problem with

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Speaker 2: the original proposal when it came to counsel, was to

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Speaker 2: proceed with this sale without telling anyone about it, and

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Speaker 2: that would only release that decision once the sale process started,

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Speaker 2: and in my view, I don't think the community would

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Speaker 2: have responded very well to that either. So I think

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Speaker 2: what's going to come out of this. It was a

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Speaker 2: bit of a challenging process with this particular property, and

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Speaker 2: people were upset and angry and very rightfully, I think, Katie,

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Speaker 2: that they weren't part of the process to begin with

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Speaker 2: that in future, we will have this open, transparent process

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Speaker 2: around land sales in the future.

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Speaker 1: So just to make it really clear for our listeners,

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Speaker 1: essentially so that Caretaker's residents now in per app that

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Speaker 1: initially we had been thinking could it be used to

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Speaker 1: be rezoned and become community use its Now it is

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Speaker 1: going to be the council is going to sell it

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Speaker 1: and it'll be residential. Will it be residential?

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Speaker 2: That's the intention, but it needs to go through that

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Speaker 2: that process for the planning scheme, amendment and all that

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Speaker 2: type of thing. But yeah, we're planning to subdivide and

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Speaker 2: rezone it and sell it.

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Speaker 1: So well, look, the thing I like is, you know,

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Speaker 1: like sometimes counsels, governments, everybody, decisions can be made and

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Speaker 1: locals might not realize exactly what's going on. But in

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Speaker 1: this instance, when locals realized, they were worried, but you listened,

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Speaker 1: you know, you guys went back out there, you went

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Speaker 1: and listened to those residents. And I think that's a

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Speaker 1: really important thing for anybody that's in, you know, a

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Speaker 1: public facing position to be able to do and sometimes

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Speaker 1: it's not easy to do that. But you just did

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Speaker 1: go out and you did listen to what we were saying.

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Speaker 2: No, that's right, and that's what it really showed to me.

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Speaker 2: There was very strong interest in this, and I think

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Speaker 2: doing the expression of interest process to check if anyone

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Speaker 2: in the community could use if it's a little before

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Speaker 2: we sell it. As I like to say, Katie, you

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Speaker 2: can only sell the farm once.

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Speaker 1: Yep.

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Speaker 2: Once governments sells something, you're not going to get it back.

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Speaker 2: So I think it's important that we do that process

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Speaker 2: to see if we can reuse it. But the feedback

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Speaker 2: was no, no one really had it much of and

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Speaker 2: ability to use it. So yeah, let's proceed with the sale.

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Speaker 2: And that's what the feedback from people.

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Speaker 1: And I guess early like early days, but any idea

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Speaker 1: like will that money just sort of go into council

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Speaker 1: coffers or remains to be seen at this point in time. Yeah.

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Speaker 2: So we do have a reserve fund for Yich. We

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Speaker 2: put proceeds from sale of public land into so yeah,

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Speaker 2: that's that's a decision for future as to whether we

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Speaker 2: reinvest that in playgrounds or infrastructure upgrades or new services. Yeah,

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Speaker 2: that's really decision for counsel down the track.

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Speaker 1: And changes now so that that essentially you will increase

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Speaker 1: that transparency as well, so that there is that higher

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Speaker 1: level or I guess a prolonged level of consultation too

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Speaker 1: with the public.

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Speaker 2: Yes, I think it means these decisions will take longer

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Speaker 2: to make, But I think the key thing is that

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Speaker 2: we bring people along with us. We don't get the

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Speaker 2: shock of oh, there's a for sale sign opposite my street.

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Speaker 2: Do with that? Yeah, why did they do that? How

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Speaker 2: are they doing it? And people will be able to

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Speaker 2: come on the journey. Elected members will have the feedback,

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Speaker 2: formal feedback from the community about this is what we'd

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Speaker 2: like to see happen, and that process is transparent and

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Speaker 2: open to everyone.

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Speaker 1: Well Ed Smelt Darwin, Well, City of Darwin, Counselor. It's

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Speaker 1: always good to catch up. But I appreciate you coming

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Speaker 1: into the studio this morning, and also you know, hearing

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Speaker 1: the concerns of residents and listeners. I know we had

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Speaker 1: quite a few get in contact with us here on

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Speaker 1: the show. And like I say, I think it can

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Speaker 1: be difficult sometimes for elected members to kind of go, oh,

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Speaker 1: hang on a stick, let's go and let's go out

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Speaker 1: and talk to people. And sometimes people can be hostile

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Speaker 1: as well or pretty fired up in these situations. But

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Speaker 1: you went out there, you had a chat with them,

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Speaker 1: and you know, things have obviously been changed as a result.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, and I think that that goes to that point

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Speaker 2: about being more transparent and more available to the community.

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Speaker 2: When there's a vacuum or people are not community communicating

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Speaker 2: or explaining what's going on, that's when rumors and things

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Speaker 2: can really start to start to grow. And yeah, when

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Speaker 2: it went down to that community meeting or going to

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Speaker 2: by Laurie Ceo, the member of Famny Bay, which is

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Speaker 2: very helpful. Once we talked through it, everyone was really

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Speaker 2: upset at the start. But once we talked through it

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Speaker 2: and I explained why we're doing it and what we're

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Speaker 2: doing it, people still had their views about it, absolutely,

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Speaker 2: but they did they could see where I was coming from,

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Speaker 2: what we're trying to achieve, and so from now on, yeah,

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Speaker 2: it'll be much better process.

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Speaker 1: Good stuff. Ed Smelt. City of Darwin Counselor good to

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Speaker 1: catch up with you. We'll talk to you again soon.

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Speaker 1: Thanks very much, Katie, thank you,