For many years now our Council has been investing time, effort and money in chasing the unpaid rates from a company that owned a great number of lots in the non-urban areas surrounding the North Arm Cove village. Finally their efforts have been rewarded.
At the 25 September meeting of Council it was resolved that ...
Council enter into contracts to acquire the 452 lots of land in North Arm Cove from North Arm Cove Property Marketing P/L (in Liquidation) and that the Common Seal of Council be affixed to relevant Contract of Sale and Transfer of land documentation.
Pursuant to Section 31 of the Local Government Act 1993 Council classify the land as operational land.
Council advise the North Arm Cove Resident's Association of the current situation.
The land is being acquired at a bargain basement price and Council will fund the acquisition via a loan. At this stage we do not have details of the location and size of the lots. Would it perhaps be advantageous to have, at least some of them, reclassified as some form of "community" land? Community land includes categories such as bushland, wetland and natural area as well as park, sportsground and general community use.
A report referring to these lots (written several years ago) suggested that they were mostly in the range of 320-550 square metres though a small number may be larger. If they average around 400 square metres each, then the area of land involved in this purchase would be around 18 hectares. To put this in some perspective, apart from the Community Hall site, the total area in the Cove currently classified as "community land" is a mere 2.24 hectares.
The 452 lots were originally part of a much larger parcel of lots marketed a couple of decades ago. It is possible therefore that they are scattered sparsely amongst lots owned privately by others. We must await further details of the purchase to see what opportunities it presents.
The paper that went to Council on the purchase said:
Council's decision to acquire the property will assist in preventing the further perpetuation of individual private ownership of properties in the North Arm Cove non urban area. As Council is aware there is no infrastructure in place to support the development of properties in the North Arm Cove non urban area.
Council's payment for the properties will help cover the liquidator's expenses and hopefully some proportion will make its way back to the company's creditors including Great Lakes Council.
