A councillor has shared a vision for a centrally located pocket of the Sunshine Coast to be a slow-speed village.
Sunshine Coast Division 4 councillor Joe Natoli said he would like to see Cotton Tree become a pedestrian- and cyclist-friendly village.
“The village will be pretty much from First Avenue/Aerodrome Road to the ocean and the river, and in that village we want to look at a reduced speed limit. I’d be looking at a speed limit of 30-40kmh,” he said.
Cr Natoli said that as well as slowing speeds through the area, improvements would be needed to footpaths and shade.
“At the moment, we’ve got footpaths that aren’t matching, they’re different sizes, and we need more shady trees,” he said.
Cr Natoli said new raised pedestrian crossings – so-called ‘wombat crossings’ – would be a step towards slowing speeds through Cotton Tree.
Sunshine Coast Council announced last year that it had obtained funding under the federal Black Spot program for nine raised crossings at Cotton Tree.
The crossings will be on Beach Parade, Kingsford Smith Parade, Melrose Parade and Memorial Avenue, either side of Sixth Avenue. A raised crossing has already been installed on Fourth Avenue.
Questions have been raised about crossings being built on side streets ahead of the busier Sixth Avenue, which carries traffic between Aerodrome Road and King Street.
A council spokesperson said it had received federal Black Spot funding for the eight side-street crossings.
“These crossings are being prioritised over raised crossings on Sixth Avenue due to the current speed limit, which is too high for raised pedestrian crossings to meet Australian standards,” the spokesperson said.
The spokesperson said there were still plans to reduce the speed limit and install raised crossings on Sixth Avenue.
Cr Natoli said further attempts would be made to obtain funding for crossings on Sixth Avenue at the intersections with the side streets.
He asked members of the public to “trust and understand that funding is coming from other levels of government”.
“We don’t have any other way to deal with this stuff. Eventually, there will be raised crossing at these intersections,” he said.
According to the council, there were 21 accidents in the Cotton Tree area in the five years from 2019 to 2023, of which 11 involved pedestrians or cyclists.
Sixteen of the 21 accidents occurred on The Esplanade, Cotton Tree Parade, King Street, Sixth Avenue and Alexandra Parade. The majority of the pedestrian and cyclist accidents were on The Esplanade, Cotton Tree Parade and King Street.
Cr Natoli said reducing speed limits was a process that involved the local speed management committee but he hoped the Cotton Tree village would become a reality, even with its own sign.
