Cowra Shire councillors, in one of the final decisions made by councillors before the new council meets later this year, have approved the Cowra CBD Activation Plan.
"The plan is our community's vision for the future of Cowra," councillor Erin Fahey said during discussion of the plan at an extraordinary meeting of Cowra Council on August 12.
Councillors Sharon D'Elboux, Erin Watt, Cheryl Downing, Judi Smith and Peter Wright voted to approve the plan.
The decision wasn't mutual with councillors Paul Smith, Nicki Kiss and mayor Ruth Fagan all supporting the plan but preferring to note the plan for the future council to consider
"Making sure our CBD is beautiful and activated in the new economy is really important for council's agenda into the future," Cr Watt said.
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All councillors spoke for or against adoption of the plan at the August 12 meeting.
"This plan is our community's vision for the future of Cowra," Cr Fahey said.
A number of councillors congratulated Cr Sharon D'Elboux for bringing the plan to "fruition".
"She has put an awful lot of work into this," Cr Nikki Kiss said of the plan which Cr Fahey noted "was formed by 128 people joining together on a Saturday afternoon to brainstorm ideas for a better Cowra".
Cr Fahey went on to describe the committee and working party behind the plan as "people who care about our community coming together to work on solutions and not blame each other".
Supporting the continuation of the committee Cr Fahey said its work has seen "a really big shift".
"And I think (continuing the committee) will be a really good insight for Council, both as we start to implement this plan, but also to continue to inform what we do as councillors".
Adding to the discussion Cr Cheryl Downing said she hoped the next Council will see the merit of the communities voice and their opinions.
"I would love the next council to oversee this plan and reap the benefits from it," she said.
Cr Judi Smith congratulated all the members of the community who have worked so hard on the plan.
"I have seldom seen community members so involved and felt empowered," Cr Judi Smith said.
"Despite some people being a bit concerned that there have been plans before and things don't always get done and some of the things here are very ambitions and will require grant funding, I like that the activities and actions have time frames.
"I do hope the next council will continue this committee and the committee will support meaningful consultation and it will be a plan that continues to evolve."
One of those concerned about adopting the plan were Cr Paul Smith who suggested council note it and allow the incoming council to go through the adoption process.
"It's a complicated document and it conflicts with a lot of other plans that we have," Cr Paul Smith said, speaking in reference to Cowra Council plans already developed for Macquarie Street and the Lachlan River precinct.
He called on council to note the plan and allow the next council to investigate any conflicts with other plans.
"We need as lot more clarity exactly where this plan dovetails with the plans we already have. Some (of the plans) are not feasible, others are very very good.
"To adopt it in its entirety by this council, with two weeks (of the council term) to go, I would rather see it noted and the next council move through it in detail," he said.
In contrast Cr Peter Wright told the meeting the plan could be adopted "on the proviso that it gets placed on the next council's agenda"
"I don't think we are committing too much here today about future council's expenditure," he said.
Cr Nikki Kiss also spoke against adopting the plan.
"I commend them for their effort and dedication but I think there are many aspects of the plan that deserve teasing out... it is really important we get it right," she said.
Cr Kiss suggest the wording of the plan needed to be changed so that council was "exploring" options instead of implementing.
"I'd also like to compare this with plans that have already been excepted or discussed by previous councils.
"In essence I support the plan and I don't want it to go away but it is also something that we should not rush in to. We need to do this properly and it should be left to the new council.
"It needs to come to the new council because they're the ones who are going to be supporting and driving it," Cr Kiss said.
Cr Bill West, who is not re-standing for Council and described himself as "going to be feather duster" said council agreed it needed to do something about the CBD.
"Indeed the plan is not perfect but you are never going to get a perfect plan," he said.
"To me the salient point is expectations. How are we going to manage the community's expectations -and the expectations going to be placed on a future council.
"We need to clearly understand that the money is just not there. We need to be mindful of expectations we are creating.
"We need to make sure we don't create on the next council an expectation that council will fund some of these projects because clearly we know the finance is not there to do some of this work," he said.
Mayor Ruth Fagan also spoke against adopting the plan before the term of the next council.
"This is an ambitious vision, a lot of things we need to investigate further," she said.
"This is a community plan, and there is an expectation the community takes a lot of this on. At the moment we don't have a business chamber that could take on a lot of this work.
"We can note the plan but we do need how we are going to do these things and who is going to pay for them," she said, describing the plan "as very aspirational".
Cr D'Elboux who moved adoption of the plan had the final word pointing out "It is important to note this plan actually compliments existing council plans".
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