Council sells block of land to Riverside Christian College
A block of land owned by the Fraser Coast Regional Council will be sold to a private school looking to expand its campus.
Education
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A block of land owned by the Fraser Coast Regional Council will be sold to Riverside Christian College as the school looks to expand.
The Royle St land became available following an assessment of council’s landholdings, with the council to use sale proceeds for environmental purposes.
The council accepted a $700,150 offer from the college to buy the land.
The proceeds of the sale will be quarantined and applied for regional environmental purposes in the council’s capital budget.
Riverside Christian College was eyeing the land in Royle St to build a multipurpose sports facility, outdoor chapel, and flexible learning space.
Deputy Mayor Denis Chapman said the council owned a range of properties and blocks of land and following an assessment of its holdings it was decided to sell blocks deemed surplus to needs.
“The lot in Royle Street initially went to tender in 2022 with the Riverside Christian College expressing interest in buying the vacant land across from the school to either develop units for staff housing, or to build a kindergarten and out of school hours care facility,” he said.
“Council officers recommended the tender for a unit development be accepted as it was line with the Planning Scheme and a preliminary approval provided by the then Maryborough City Council in 2007.
“However, at its December 2022 meeting, Council resolved that the land go back out to tender without development conditions being attached to any potential sale, and for public consultation to be undertaken to gauge community feeling on the sale of the riverside land.
“Going back out to tender without development conditions attached would increase the pool of potential buyers.
“Council conducted community consultation in March and April this year. There were 292 survey responses, and five submissions with most respondents generally supporting the sale of the Royle Street land.”
At a council meeting in October last year, a motion regarding the sale of the land sparked considerable debate.
At the time, Councillor Paul Truscott said the college had the means to fund the construction of the infrastructure and added that the proposed sports facility could be used by visitors to the region.
In response to the sale, Mr Truscott told the Chronicle he thought it was a great outcome for the region.
“Riverside is a growing school and they are landlocked,” he said.
“We have an opportunity for them to expand by sale of one of the parcels of land opposite the school in the open space which had very low visitation.
“I look forward to seeing what plans the school brings forward in this space. The funds from the sale of the land will be dedicated to environmental purposes.”
Riverside Christian College has been providing educational services in the region for more than 40 years and has advised council that they have experienced significant growth in both students and staff in the past two years so would like to expand.
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