Major Amendment Package R - Clause C

Councillor Seal Chong Wah – Paddington Ward

Delivered in Council Chambers, 1st September 2026

I rise to briefly speak on clause C Major Amendment to Brisbane City Plan 2014 - Major Amendment Package R. Specifically about 30 Tottenham Street that is buried in the package R papers. 

This LNP council is quietly rezoning 30 Tottenham Street from parkland ('Open Space') to high-density development ('District Centre'). To be clear, the zoning change means the property won't be added to the park, and local residents will miss out on an expanded green space.

Since around 2009, Brisbane City Council has been progressively acquiring properties on the corner of Carl Street and Tottenham Street in the Buranda locality of Woolloongabba (across the road from the Buranda Woolworths shopping centre) to create a new public park. 

This park was added to the city plan zoning maps around the same time as all the surrounding streets (from Wolseley Street to Regent Street) were rezoned for high-density development. 

Since that rezoning, a lot of the low-density detached houses have been progressively redeveloped into highrises. I note that Council planners identified that all those new apartment residents would need a local public green space to avoid creating a hot concrete jungle. Obviously, greenspace is essential to cool our city down and is crucial for the health and wellbeing of our community.

Former Greens Councillor Jonathan Srinangathan represented this area, and was successful in advocating for over a million dollars to be spent to upgrade this space as more properties on Tottenham St were acquired to expand the park. 

Now, under LNP Cr Fiona Cunningham is not fighting to keep this precious greenspace for her residents. 

Once again, this LNP is taking away our greenspace! Greenspace for our community! 

Keeping 30 Tottenham St to the park would make it large enough to accommodate a dog off-leash area, or some more kickaround space for ball games, or a community garden, or maybe even a court for basketball or pickle ball. 

Why would the council do this?? Maybe this council is doing this to save money. The LNP have mismanaged the council budget for many years, and are now running a significant deficit; not having to buy the block for parkland saves them around $1.5 million.

Interestingly, it also means that the sale value of 30 Tottenham St will probably increase from its approximate value of $1.4 million to perhaps $3 million or $4 million, because now you'll theoretically be allowed to build a highrise on it (the neighbouring property at 24 Tottenham St might also increase in value because its development potential increases if you could amalgamate the two blocks to build a larger highrise).

This is happening again and again across our city – past council administrations identified land that should be converted into public parkland to cater for population growth, but now the LNP is sneakily removing those parks from the city plan one amendment at a time.