June 27, 2017
The South Burnett Regional Council will begin setting aside money next year for a major upgrade of Kingaroy’s CBD.
On Monday, Mayor Keith Campbell announced the Council will set aside $2 million each year in the 2018-19 and 2019-20 budgets to build a $4 million war chest for the project.
It will then seek a matching contribution from State or Federal Government grant programs so work on the $8 million upgrade could commence as soon as full funding was secured.
This year, the Council will begin reviewing previous strategies for CBD revitilisation developed by the former Kingaroy Shire Council in the mid-2000s.
It will then undertake community consultations to determine what shape the project should take.
The Council will use the outcomes of the consultation process to develop concept drawings and carry out some preliminary design work.
The project will fulfil a long-standing commitment by Cr Campbell to revitalise Kingaroy’s CBD and town entrances.
In November 2015, then-Deputy Mayor Campbell told a meeting of the Kingaroy Chamber Of Commerce and Industry that Kingaroy was looking “tired and shabby”.
He thought the solution was a streetscaping project similar to Nanango’s that would upgrade the CBD and the town’s three highway entrances.
However, because of the size of the town’s CBD, it would be a costly project to undertake and wasn’t likely to happen until the economy improved.
“When it does happen, though, I hope the KCCI will play a big role in the process,” he said.
Mayor Campbell told southburnett.com.au some aspects of the plan – such as a CBD car park on the old railway land behind Haly Street – were already part of the Council’s long term thinking.
Others, however, would be up to the community to decide.
- Related article: ‘Tired’ Kingaroy Needs A Facelift
