Five mayoral candidates - Peta Pinson, Steven Gates, Rachel Sheppard, Lisa Intemann and Nik Lipovac - are contesting the Port Macquarie-Hastings Council election.

Voters will go to the polls on December 4 to elect the mayor and eight councillors for the next council term.

The Hastings Residents Association staged the mayoral forum at Port City Bowling Club on Tuesday [November 23].

One of the questions put to the mayoral candidates dealt with the controversial council decision, made in a confidential session at a meeting in March 2017, to sell a parcel of land at 10-16 Pacific Drive, Port Macquarie, to Pacific Drive Pty Ltd.

The land makes up a portion of a site which is earmarked for a $23.5 million apartment complex, proposed by Laurus Projects, near Windmill Hill.

Council has confirmed that contracts have been exchanged and a deposit paid pending completion.

It said under the contract, final settlement on the land is subject to, and conditional upon, the proposed project for the site obtaining development consent.

Read more:

Mayoral candidates responded to the land sale issue at the forum.

Steven Gates said if the decision had been validly and lawfully made, then it needed to stand.

"I think there is an issue with the transparency of the process," he said.

Mayor Peta Pinson called for an inquiry.

"There is a lot of questions to ask, and in fact, there needs to be an inquiry into exactly what has gone on here," she said.

Nik Lipovac said we still didn't know the full facts and further investigation was needed. He supported cancelling the land sale.

Deputy mayor Lisa Intemann said the decision was controversial but there was no wrongdoing.

"I would welcome an inquiry, madam mayor, and let's see exactly what went on," she said.

Rachel Sheppard also supported an inquiry.

"I think an inquiry is a great idea and I really encourage our community to engage quite thoroughly with this before coming to conclusions about whose interests were at play," she said.

The Pacific Drive development application will go before the Northern Regional Planning Panel for a determination on Thursday [November 25]. The meeting will be held via videoconference.

The council says it "removed any conflict" by referring the development application for assessment to an independent third party.

Concerned residents have spoken out against the proposed development which they say is out of character with the area.

Objections raised include the building height variation, the proposal's size and scale, loss of privacy, traffic and overshadowing issues, stormwater concerns and light pollution.

The proposed development recently came under scrutiny when ABC's Four Corners program aired an investigation on the Obeid family.

The proposal, by Laurus Projects, was listed among coastal developments allegedly linked back to the Obeid family in the investigation.

Laurus Projects told Four Corners that the Obeid family had no involvement in its Port Macquarie development.

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content:

Bookmark our website

Make sure you are signed up for our breaking and regular headlines newsletters

You can support us with a subscription

Follow us on Twitter: @portmacnews

Follow us on Instagram: @portmacnews

Follow us on Google News