PORT Macquarie Chamber of Commerce will advocate on Thursday for the formation of a state-owned corporation vested with Crown foreshore land.
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Board members will meet with Minister for Lands and Water Niall Blair during which the business body will outline the state-owned corporation proposal.
It comes as the Department of Primary Industries and Woolworths negotiate to finalise the purchase terms for the Plaza car park which is Crown Land.
Woolworths plans to develop its Food for Less site and the adjoining Plaza car park. Port Macquarie Chamber of Commerce president Hadyn Oriti said the Plaza car park site was critical to the chamber’s larger objective to establish a state-owned corporation to take ownership of Crown Land from Settlement Point to Town Beach.
The corporation would drive the foreshore master plan implementation using rents and profits from licences, leases and appropriate development.
Mr Oriti opposes the Plaza car park sale to Woolworths and wants to see the land, along with other Crown foreshore land from Settlement Point to Town Beach, vested to the corporation.
“There are good reasons to support the chamber’s proposition which we believe will bring something new and exciting to the foreshore, and the CBD, rather than a supermarket which adds nothing,” he said.
Port Macquarie-Hastings councillors will discuss the Plaza car park during a meeting tomorrow with Mr Blair.
The minister will also meet with board members from the Hastings River Fishermen’s Co-operative.
The co-op is facing closure at the end of the year.