The fate of a proposed youth precinct in Bunbury's CBD has been decided following last nights City of Bunbury council meeting.
The executive recommendation for council to endorse a portion of Luciana Park as the preferred site for a new Youth Precinct and for chief executive Mal Osborne to engage a contractor to begin the community engagement process to produce a concept design for the facility was voted in.
Around 80 submissions were received during the public comment period with many people raising concerns about the proposed site being too valuable and stating the current skate park was sufficient.
An important decision to be made, there was plenty of debate before the vote along with three deputations including the Youth Mayor, who implored council to vote for the motion, Chris Spence and James Stephen spoke against it.
Councillor Brendan Kelly described it "as an investment in our youth" and the "best use for the land at the moment".
Councillor Karen Steele also supported the motion and said it would become another reason for people to visit Bunbury.
City of Bunbury Youth Advisory Council Mayor Sean Smith said he wasn't surprised by feedback from the community, which was why as many opportunities for feedback as possible were provided.
"The location is an accessible and practical location selected by the community and through a visibility study - a thorough process has led to this recommendation," he said.
Mr Smith said the youth precinct would be a multi-use facility catering to the whole and wider community for regular events and community enhancement and was not intended to encourage anti-social behavior.
"The Youth Advisory Council and the Community Partnerships department are well positioned and resourced to deliver a unique community-driven and designed asset to the city that brings the community and tourists together," he said.
City of Bunbury Mayor Gary Brennan admitted there was a lot to consider with Luciana Park a significant entry point to the city.
"Whatever we do there we need to think about the medium-term and the long-term," he said.
"It's crown reserve and the use is recreation so that really does dictate what can happen there.
"There can't be anything other than recreational type activities on that reserve at the same time down the track, a council of the future might want to do something significant there, which is a community project and we don't know what that might be."