Remember how a few years ago, with support from both Labor and the LNP, Brisbane City Council forced dozens of people out of their homes and acquired their land to facilitate the unnecessary and ill-advised widening of Lytton Rd in East Brisbane?

Well today, BCC is voting on a motion to sell the remnant land back to private developers. The areas of vacant land circled in red will be sold off to the private sector, and are zoned for height limits up to 3 storeys.

I think it would be much better to retain public ownership of this land, preserving some of it as green space for a wildlife corridor, and using some of it for public housing for people on lower incomes.

Governments are always telling us that they’d like to provide more inner-city public housing but there’s no land available. Well here’s a location that’s close to public transport and a bikeway, where council already owns the land.

Considering how many low-income residents were forced out of this neighbourhood to make room for the road-widening, it would be great if some of this land could be repurposed as non-profit housing for more low-income residents…

Jonathan Sri
Councillor for the Gabba
25 Nov 2020