Nearly 8000 people have signed a petition urging the council not to demolish a 110-year-old building at Leura.
And dozens of supporters attended a party recently to show solidarity with Mark Alchin, owner of the Wayzgoose Cafe which has occupied the site for nearly 15 years.
The old weatherboard building, which housed the first newspaper published in the Mountains, is owned by the council.
Mr Alchin has told the Gazette for years he had asked the council to make repairs but nothing was done.
Finally, last June, when the tenants next door moved out, a building report was done and Mr Alchin was given notice to quit.
That was withdrawn but at a meeting last December, the council considered a confidential report on options for the site and voted for demolition and redevelopment.
Mr Alchin had asked for the matter to be discussed in public but his pleas were ignored. The council will not show him the report and also refused to release it to the Gazette.
A spokeswoman said: “Regarding the council report in December 2015, the confidential status remains unchanged, hence that report is not publicly available.”
It was listed as confidential because “the report contains and discussion is likely to involve information that would, if disclosed, confer a commercial advantage on a person with whom the council is conducting (or proposes to conduct) business”.
Musician Pat Drummond, who MCed the support party at Wayzgoose, said it was the council’s own negligence which had led to the deterioration of the building.
“That the people responsible for maintaining our community’s assets should have steadfastly refused to do anything to solve the problem is nothing short of reprehensible.”
He said it was poor treatment of Mr Alchin, who co-founded the Leura Gardens Festival, set up the Leura Village Association and even in the early days watered the young cherry trees planted along the mall.
A council spokeswoman said the decision to redevelop the site “was informed by the age of the building, combined with poor construction techniques at the time it was built”.
She said the council had commissioned an architectural team to consider options and prepare suitable designs. She expected a DA to be lodged later this year.
Candidate for ward 1, Kerry Brown, said the Greens wanted the building saved.
“The BM Greens passed a motion in support of the campaign and the petition to save the building at their general meeting of April 6. We have since been assisting however we can, including gathering signatures at stalls, online and from members.”