Drought, thriving towns & ONE council going AGAINST residents

“The people said ‘no’ and the council ignored them. If the council doesn’t represent the people, just who does it represent? – Mudgee Business Association (MBA) NSW.

“It’s the people and their attitudes that make a town successful”–
Ian Plowman (no relation to PWF editor!) a senior research fellow at the University of Queensland.

Innovative country towns do well but can they fight developers?
It seems that across Australia, towns large and small are being affected by mall developments…from Margaret River to Mudgee.

Mudgee, population 8000, is a lovely, historic town in the NSW Central Tablelands. A couple of few hours drive from the city, Sydneysiders escape here to relax in the region’s wineries, galleries, orchards and restaurants BUT there is a council supported threat in the shape of a Stockland Development that some today describe as a ‘big-box swindle’ (see below).

What has happened in Mudgee? The ‘no big-box development’ position

• More than 80 per cent of the voting public petitioned the local council to refuse approval for a $38 million enclosed-style shopping centre on land the council owns in the middle of the central business district. Critics say Stockland Mudgee, incorporating a supermarket, discount store, greengrocer and ’25 speciality shops’ under one roof, with underground parking for 292 cars, is a massive extension of what was originally envisaged under the development control plan and also differs significantly from the preferred scheme proposed by Red8, a Queensland-based property group that won the right to develop the site last May before selling that right to Stockland in June.
• Expert after expert submitted reports warning of the woeful social and economic impact on the town;
• the developer ‘waxed lyrical’ about competition driving down prices, BUT
• said nothing about prices when the opposition is forced out of business;
• the Mid-Western Regional Council supported the developer’s exciting claims by forecasting rent reductions along the retail strip, BUT
• failed to explain how landlords will maintain these expensive heritage buildings on reduced incomes, OR
• what will happen to many existing shopkeepers, already working on tight margins because of the drought and the crisis in the wine industry, being forced out of business, wrecking the rural ambience of the town centre and substantially reducing Mudgee’s appeal to tourists, AND
• by five votes to four, the Mid-Western Regional Council development application was approved ‘with indecent haste’ five days before Christmas’;
• the MBA strategy has identified areas they can take action against the development through the Land and Environment Court and the MBA is lobbying councillors in the hopes of getting a recision motion to the council chambers.

What is the Council’s position re: the ‘big-box’ development?

• Stewart White, for Stockland Shopping Centre Division says “the design and layout of the centre has been developed with the needs of the local community in mind”. At 8300 square metres, it would be one of the smallest shopping centres of the 41 owned by Stockland, half the size of Stockland Bathurst.
• The Mayor of Mudgee, Percy Thompson says critics are being alarmist. The site had long been designated for retail use, and Stockland’s scheme complied with the development control plan, he said.
• The council appointed an independent assessor, recognising it had a conflict of interest as both the planning authority and the vendor of the land. The assessor recommended that Stockland reduce the number of speciality shops from 30 to 25, which had been adopted.
• Under the terms of the agreement, the Stockland scheme is worth $2.6 million to the council.
• Although Percy Thompson accepts the issue has split the town, and that “there might be some initial impact” on existing shops, he insisted there would be long-term benefits. The mall would encourage people from outlying parts of the shire to shop in Mudgee rather than Dubbo, Bathurst or Lithgow.

A tourism perspective
Gwenda O’Neill, a hairdresser, whose husband, James, runs the Butcher Shop Cafe, insists it was Mudgee’s ‘village atmosphere and its cute shops’ that persuaded them to make the lifestyle choice to move from Sydney five years ago. She fears the mall will change the town’s ambience irrevocably. “Tourists won’t come to a concrete jungle. They’ll go to Leura instead.”

Is there anything residents can do to make their voices heard?
Locals says Mudgee is a beautiful place to live and, despite the grip of this drought, the town still thrives with optimism and locals share a true bush friendliness with everyone. Visitors flock in every weekend to escape the city hustle and bustle yet the local council wants it to look like Chatswood and Penrith.”

The MBA is taking legal advice AND talking to Maleny, Qld, but admits there is probably nothing they can do, other than a boycott, similar to the one residents of Maleny waged against an unwanted Woolworths.

Unrest about similar development in America
In the US Stacy Mitchell writes about The Big Box Swindle: The True Cost of Mega-Retailers and the Fight for America’s Independent Businesses.’

“A growing number of communities are fighting back against the rising power of large retail stores like Wal-Mart. But real change won’t come until we stop thinking of ourselves as consumers and start thinking of ourselves as engaged citizens.

Citizens groups are waging a growing number of successful campaigns against big-box retailers. They are winning victories in places as far-flung as Damariscotta, Maine, a coastal village where two stay-at-home moms ignited an uprising this past spring that not only blocked a Wal-Mart supercenter but led several towns to adopt store size cap laws that effectively ban big boxes region-wide, and Inglewood, California, a working class city near Los Angeles where voters handed Wal-Mart a stunning upset two years ago even though the chain spent over $1 million on a massive public relations blitz.”

Meanwhile innovative people in Australian bush towns are doing well. Ian Plowman a senior research fellow at the University of Queensland and author of ‘Innovation in Rural Queensland – Why Some Towns Prosper While Others Languish’, has surveyed eight small towns with populations between 600 and 10,000. He found that innovative towns are:

• highly tolerant of diversity
• take pride in and contribute to their community
• are welcoming to visitors
• have a low dependency on government
• interestingly, have a low dependency on leaders
• preferring to share responsibility within the community.

Ian says “research I’ve undertaken….to investigate innovation in rural towns shows that innovation depends on members of the community exchanging ideas….The consequence for rural towns, probably mirrored in our larger society, is that few ideas are openly shared and those with experience of civic participation and responsibility are few. Less obvious, but just as detrimental, is that those few have very little exposure to alternative ways of operating. So why do the “few” engage with civic organizations while the majority do not? ”

What CAN a community do if there is no chance of dialogue OR to consider what is happening around the world as well as in our own back yard? The only option is as much publicity as possible and recourse to SBS documentaires such as ‘Independent America’ or Ian Plowman’s research. DO please let us know what you think of this most important topic!