Davidson St apartments less of an eyesore, closer to completion
NEW APARTMENTS
A new 10-apartment residential complex in Davidson Street, Port Douglas, is finally looking like it is heading towards completion – which many residents and businesses in the street will welcome wholeheartedly.
Delays, untidy mess out front, noise from building work and an ‘unruly’ tenant on the leafy block at 33 Davidson St have plagued the project and annoyed neighbouring businesses.
After many years since the project was approved by Douglas Shire Council, completion – which many in the street are hoping is fairly imminent – will bring much relief.
A Council spokesperson told us: “The development approval was issued in 2017 and construction is still underway. The developer has not given Council any indication of a completion date.”
After several unsuccessful attempts to contact the developer, Paul Chiodo, for any comments on a completion date and when apartments will be put on the market to potential owners and lessees, Newsport went along to discover what we could see from the street.
Apartments progress
It appears the apartment complex has made fair progress towards completion, with scaffolding and other peripherals now removed from the site. On the outside, painting of the buildings has started but is not finished and permanent patio safety railing is yet to be installed.
There were several vehicles which looked like those of tradespeople and other contractors parked outside the block who appeared to be working on fit outs inside the complex.
Noise and problem tenant
Newsport spoke to the general manager of the next-door Shantara Resort, Peter Brown, who said his business and others around No 33 “just want the project completed”, because it has dragged on for too long and been the source of much noise, unsightliness and at one stage, a tenant who had to be reported to police on a few occasions.
“This one guy particularly just yells and screams and carries on all day, and you ring them (Council) and they go, 'oh yeah yeah, you gotta ring the police'.
You ring the police and they say, 'oh yeah', "we’ll go and talk to him, and nothing happens,” Mr Brown said.
Building noise was a lot worse previously when the apartment structure were going up, but is less frequent now.
The neighbours, including other nearby establishments Central Plaza and Outrigger, are looking forward to the apartment complex being completed and tenants moving in.
“Every now and then we’ll get a spate of a few days when its noisy, when they’re cutting tiles or something like that and that’s pretty much directly above our swimming pool, so the noise carries across the water," Mr Brown said.
He said the site in general was also an “eyesore” at the frontage for many months, and only very recently, an old yellow van which had vegetation growth on it was removed.
Call for tightening of Council conditions
He has called on Council to tighten up its completion date rules and conditions of approval.
“I think there needs to be a time period, of once they start a project, how long they take to finish it,” he said.
“There’s got to be a sunset on everything. The Council are just so weak.”
Mr Brown said Council should also have more powers to keep on the developer’s back to prevent projects under construction from becoming eyesores.
“If there’s anyone to point the finger at, it is the Council for not pushing hard enough.”
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