Forster Civic Precinct Master Plan

Council has agreed to prepare a Master Plan from the School of Arts and adjoining sites, known as the Forster Civic Precinct. The Master Plan process will include community consultation and the eventual public exhibition of options for the development of community facilities in the Civic Precinct.

The first step of this process was a community meeting to discuss options for the School of Arts/Civic Precinct. This first public meeting was held on Tuesday 11 December 2007 in the Tuncurry Memorial Hall. Approximately 110 members of the community, plus officers from Great Lakes Council and representatives of City Plan Services, packed the Tuncurry Memorial Hall on Tuesday 11 December to participate in a public forum on the future of the School of Arts and surrounding Civic Precinct area.

After a welcome and brief history of the School of Arts by Mayor of Great Lakes, Clr John Chadban, Council’s Director Corporate & Community Services, Steve Embry, and Director Engineering Services, Ron Hartley, elaborated on the structural problems evident at the School of Arts and the income and expenditure relating to its use over the last 10 years. Those present then participated in a question and answer session, facilitated by the Mayor, which went for over an hour.

“It was wonderful to see people engaging in this democratic process, where they could freely air their viewpoints, both for and against the proposal” said the Mayor.  “We even had several qualified builders present whose input regarding the cost of repairs was enlightening.”

Mr Paul Walter from City Plan Services then presented details of the process which they will follow in the preparation of a Master Plan for the Civic Precinct site. Following his presentation, the audience broke into small groups to explore their visions for the future of the site, which included public hall facilities, meeting rooms, community group use, neighbourhood centre facilities, CWA rooms and facilities for children and youth.  Full notes of the meeting and the results of the workshop session shall be available on the Community Consultation section of this Civic Precinct website in the near future.

From the results of the workshop, City Plan Services has developed a number of preliminary concept options for the site.

The preliminary concept options were presented at a Community Workshop on 1 April 2008, 7pm at the Tuncurry Memorial Hall, Point Road Tuncurry. The purpose of the Community Workshop was the presentation of the preliminary concept options for constructive input and feedback from the community. The comments, feedback and input from this meeting shall then be incorporated into the development of clear concept options, to be presented to Council at a future Strategic Committee Workshop and placed on public exhibition thereafter.

The preferred option developed by Council's consultants shall be presented at a Council workshop at the Strategic Committee meeting on 8 July 2008. The public are welcome to attend and observe this meeting. A separate public workshop shall be scheduled following adpotion for the purposes of public exhibition, of a preferred option.