Shellharbour councillors voted to spend $2 million to buy a parcel of Shell Cove land - with some objecting to claims they had "no idea" what they would do with it.
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At Tuesday night's city council meeting, the councillors approved the purchase of a 1065 square metre lot on the northern edge of the Waterfront Town centre car park.
A Mercury story on the plan quoted council business papers, which did not clarify what the land would be used for.
"The purchase of the site as recommended by this report, provides a strategic opportunity for council to consider using the site for a range of community and commercial uses, subject to further feasibility analysis," the business papers stated.
If no suitable use was identified, the council papers said the land could be on-sold.
Cr Rob Petreski objected to the story's suggestion that council was not clear on the land's use.
"I'd like to I'd like to set the record straight there," Cr Petreski said.
"I think we have a fair idea of what we can do, and it is strategic. The whole point of that is that it's not for us to publicly disclose what the strategy is before having a plan in place and things that we can present to the public.
"We have a whole bunch of confidential briefings around this, and the reason for that is because it's in commercial confidence.
"And there is no way that we could execute any sort of business plan if we just blurt it out there and put it out there for everyone to see."
He added that there was a benefit in the council acquiring land, noting a previous instance where land it owned around the airport was sold and now that could have been used to expand the site.
Mayor Homer agreed with Cr Petreski's statement that there was a plan for the site.
"Our strategic decisions here in this council aren't led by the media," Mayor Homer said.
"As you stated, we do know exactly what we're doing here. And even without a strategic direction for the land itself, it is a sound investment decision in and of itself."
Cr Maree Duffy-Moon noted it was a good piece of land to pick up.
"I think anyone who's dabbled in real estate knows location, location, location is important," Cr Duffy-Moon said.
"And this is a great opportunity for a council to earmark some land. And hopefully it'll be for a community type project, not a commercial one."
Cr Jacqui Graf agreed it was a good decision to purchase the land.
"It is, in my view, in our community's best interest for council to maintain control and considering how the land may be best used and to get the best outcomes for our community from the Shell Cove development," Cr Graf said.
"This is land that's not only valuable in terms of dollars, but in how it can contribute to the overall development of Shell Cove to best benefit the community as a whole.
"Going to the open market where any developer's primary motivation is to maximise profits is not an outcome I would like to see here."