Communities invited to buy parks in council sell-off

LISMORE City Council is pressing ahead with controversial plans to sell off small parks around the city.

LISMORE City Council is pressing ahead with controversial plans to sell off small parks around the local government area, and is now inviting communities to buy their own parks from the council and take on the job of maintaining them.

The council has today announced it has placed the proposal to rezone and reclassify 19 small parks on public exhibition in an effort to increase the resources available to the council's bigger parks.

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"The parcels of land are costing Council extensive resources to maintain and most are small, steep and not well utilised," the council statement reads.

To be safe from the council auctioneer, parks had to meet the following requirements:

• The site has a minimum area of 2500m2.
• The site is centrally located in terms of residential area that it will service.
• The site is readily accessible from most lots within its catchment area.
• At least 90% of the site has a gradient of less than 5%.
• The site has a minimum frontage to a public road of 20m (preferably on a corner lot).
• The site has a high level of visibility from surrounding lots and the public road.
• The site is capable of accommodating the appropriate level of playground equipment and other park furniture.
• The primary purpose of the park is for recreational purposes.
• The site preferably supports some mature trees or shrubs.

"As part of the Imagine Lismore 10 Year Plan it was recognised that Council must enter into community partnerships in order to make ends meet," Lismore council senior property project manager Lindsay Walker is quoted saying in the statement.

"We understand some people may like having these parks on their doorstep and we're happy to talk about ways in which we can facilitate the community taking care of them.

"The reality is these parcels of land cost a lot to maintain and we know that the money could be better spent on our larger neighbourhood parks that are used by many more people as they provide better amenity. It's not necessarily going to be a popular decision but it's prudent financially.

"Council needs to start using its resources more wisely and this planning proposal is an important step in doing that."

Apart from selling the parks back to the community, the council is also considering selling them for in-fill housing development or to neighbours who want to extend their properties.

Lismore residents can comment on the proposed rezoning and reclassification until August 2. Details about the proposal are available on the Lismore City Council website.

Submissions can be made by post to the General Manager, Lismore City Council, PO Box 23A, Lismore, NSW 2480 or via email to [e-mail].

* An earlier version of this story incorrectly said 10 parks were being considered for rezoning and reclassification. This figure has now been corrected to 19.