Kalgoorlie-Boulder council approves $3m lodging house despite concerns it’s for workforce accommodation

A $3 million redevelopment of an existing central Kalgoorlie lodging house has been given the green light by the council, despite concerns it was workforce accommodation “dressed up”. At Monday night’s City of Kalgoorlie-Boulder council meeting, an application to demolish the lodging house currently onsite at 1 Porter Street to make way for a new 50-person lodging house was supported 9-3. The development will see the placement of 12 transportable units, two universal access rooms, manager’s quarters, a kitchen and shared dining room, utility rooms, an alfresco area, and barbecue and passive recreation area. An onsite carpark will provide 14 bays as well there being seven verge street parking bays, and a drop-off bay. Councillors Suzie Williams, Mick McKay and Dave Grills voted against the development, with Cr Williams and McKay speaking against the motion. They both expressed concerns the site would not be used for community accommodation, and would instead become another workers camp. “It is workforce accommodation and I’m not sure how we can dress it up as a lodging house,” Cr Williams said. “It looks like workforce accommodation and it’s going to act like workforce accommodation.” With the development seeing the removal of five street parking bays in an area already struggling with available accommodation, Cr Williams drew attention to the fact the application suggested many lodgers would use a bus or take taxis. “If this is a lodging house you couldn’t make that clear assertion, but if it was workforce accommodation, yes, you could,” she said. During public access time earlier in the meeting, Paul Kotsoglo of Planning Solutions, who was acting for the applicants in this development, said the site was already zoned as a lodging house and the application was not seeking to amend the use of the site, but purely to redevelop the site. Speaking after the council meeting, Mayor John Bowler further dismissed suggestions it would be used as a mining camp, although he admitted he had also believed it would be, and said he “wouldn’t care”. Mr Bowler also confirmed one of the developers was associated with Poseidon Nickel, but said he spoke with that developer who confirmed it was not a workers camp and would instead operate more as a hotel or motel. “As he says, people can ring up and book a night or two nights or whatever,” he said. “I have no doubt some people might stay more permanently. “But they are looking more like a hotel or motel . . . which will be great because we are coming up to the PGA (golf tournament) and . . . we need every bit we can get.” Mr Bowler further stated he had spoken to City staff about looking into reconfiguring parking on Porter Street to allow more bays, as it would help support the neighbouring Goldfields Rehabilitation Service. The lodging house development application was previously presented to the council and went to the Joint Development Assessment Panel, which refused the application for seven reasons including insufficient parking and insufficient provision of landscaping. With those conditions now being met, the application was taken back to the council, with the officer recommendation to approve the development with 18 conditions. Community consultation regarding the development was undertaken, with six responses received highlighting 11 issues including the impact on the heritage value of the area, inadequate parking and excessive noise from the development. Most of the concerns were deemed to be at least satisfactorily addressed by conditions.