A Greens-led Brisbane City Council would buy Eagle Farm racecourse – compulsorily if necessary – to provide public and affordable housing for up to 10,000 residents, lord mayoral candidate Jonathan Sriranganathan will announce on Tuesday.
“Our plan for 4000 new rent-capped public homes at Eagle Farm, built and owned by Brisbane City Council would represent a historic change for Brisbane,” Sriranganathan said.“Every suburb needs more affordable homes, but our first major project would be bringing the Eagle Farm racecourse into public hands, transforming the site over time into public green space, housing, schools, services and facilities.
“The LNP and Labor housing plan is to give tax cuts to big developers and hope they start building, but that won’t work,” Sriranganathan said. But after the idea was first floated, Brisbane Racing Club chairman Neville Bell said converting the historic racecourse to high density housing was “100 per cent not an option”.“One hundred and fifty-eight years of racing tradition is here at Eagle Farm and the government heritage citation over the whole property prevents anything else happening here bar horse racing,” he told Nine News last August.
Source: Real Estate Daily Report (realestatedailyreport.net)