Ratepayers pick up legal bills as developers fight new home knock-backs
Time is quickly running out to achieve an original vision of a “self-sustaining” community at Mount Peter before 2030 amid a pattern of council blocking new home builds that’s costing ratepayers millions of dollars in legal fees.
Cairns
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Time is quickly running out to achieve an original vision of a “self-sustaining” community at Mount Peter before 2030 amid a pattern of council blocking new home builds that’s costing ratepayers millions of dollars in legal fees.
Despite being changed from rural to low-medium density residential in 2016 under the updated CairnsPlan, major developers have consistently run into opposition when trying to deliver low-cost new home builds within the Mount Peter Southern Growth Corridor.
In 2012 the Mount Peter structure plan laid out a vision for the evolution of Cairns’ newest suburb.
“In 2030, the town of Mount Peter is a social, economic, employment and
community hub,” the report stated.
“Mount Peter is a prosperous community which is largely self-sustaining, a diverse employment base has been created by the private and public sectors leveraging off major health, education and technology facilities.”
But with five years to run until 2030 and only a small fraction of the huge 3330ha site so far developed, that original goal from 13 years ago appears out of reach.
It’s feared a continuing trend to lock up land and a council unable to independently finance a sewer system connecting Petersen Road to the Edmonton Waste Water Treatment Plant is contributing to a slow down of new housing approvals and increasing property costs for first homebuyers.
Urban Development Institute of Australia Cairns branch president Nathan Lee Long said low availability of housing stock had caused the median Cairns house price to jump $30,000 in the past nine months.
“For first home buyers to qualify they need to have a house value of $750,000 or less and it’s becoming impossible to build a new home for that,” he said.
“As we have less availability there will be less business and the fear is because there is less work we will lose trades and we will struggle to have those trades come back to Cairns.
“That’s something we saw post GFC, we have experienced it before and we worry it will happen again.”
Mr Lee Long said the UDIA “recognised a need” for Mount Peter infrastructure which had been “planned for some time”.
However Master Builders Queensland Far North regional manager Sharon Vella disagreed the construction industry was heading toward a “jobs cliff”.
“The demand for qualified workers is only increasing as more development and infrastructure projects unfold across the region,” she said.
Since hitting a peak of 1005 in 2020-21, house building approvals within the Cairns region dropped to 719, in 2021-22, in 2022-23 there was a marginal increase to 759 before approvals fell in 2023-24 to 674.
Within the new home industry there’s a view held that the Cairns Regional Council planning department has an ambition to re-masterplan the entire Mount Peter area with a focus on higher density homes, rather than low-set houses with backyards at an average residential density of 20 dwellings per hectare, as laid out in the Mount Peter structure plan.
Planning, Growth and Sustainability director Ed Johnson said the council was adhering closely to a vision of housing diversity imagined within the plan.
“From detached dwellings with backyards to smaller homes and townhouses, our goal is to meet the needs of our population now and enable future growth,” he said.
“Liveability is the number one focus of the community and underpins our future planning. We need to provide spaces where people want to live, work, play and connect.
“Mount Peter is the only remaining greenfield development area of its scale in our local government area, and we want to ensure we deliver a highly liveable, healthy, active and sustainable community.”
ONGOING LEGAL BATTLES
Council has refused to reveal how much is being spent on legal fees, however it’s estimated by industry insiders each court case could cost up to $1m.
Fortress Group, the company behind the Edenbrook Estate, lodged an appeal with the Planning and Environment Court in November 2024 over the council refusal of its 700-lot housing development at Mount Peter.
Kenfrost Homes has run into issues with plans for a 461-lot home subdivision at Moorinya Circuit in Mount Peter after council planners raised “concerns with the proposal in its current form” in an request for more information.
The latest stage of the Mount Peter Residential Estate has not been denied but is essentially on hold amid the request for information submission that have become a matter of course on recent applications.
Last week an appeal against the January 24 council knock-back of the Kroymans Developments Rocky Creek stages 5A (15 lots) and 5B (22 lots) within the Pinecrest masterplanned community landed in the Planning and Environment Court.
At the core of council’s rejection was a lack of necessary infrastructure and claims of proposed developments being out of sequence as well as issues with the subdivision layout, stormwater and structure plan.
Previous stages at which homes have already been built lie less than 60m to the north of the rejected development.
TRUNK INFRASTRUCTURE
It is the council’s position that rejected developments were denied due to water and sewer lines not extending far enough to connect proposed homes to the Edmonton Waste Water Treatment Plant.
Council has relied on contested data indicating there’s enough available land for new home builds within reach of existing water and sewer infrastructure.
“We will continue to support orderly and sequential development, where infrastructure is available or can be available, and is in line with the infrastructure delivery assumptions within the Local Government Infrastructure Plan,” a council spokesman said.
According to developers the only remaining affordable housing of significance is in the Mount Peter corridor, which is “effectively closed for the next seven years” under the current Priority Infrastructure Area if the sewer infrastructure is not provided.
But council stated rejected developments were located outside the Priority Infrastructure Area.
“Meaning they would require significant infrastructure upgrades and augmentation ahead of schedule,” the spokesman said.
PRIORITY DEVELOPMENT AREA
Acknowledging a critical housing need at a meeting of Cairns Regional Council on February 26, councillors agreed to make a 50 per cent contribution, capped at $1.5m for the development planning phase of the proposed Priority Development Area at Mount Peter.
Council also urged the state government to sign off on the PDA declaration.
Residential areas where PDAs have already been established include Caloundra South, Andergrove in the Mackay region, and Blackwater in central Queensland but despite Mount Peter being master planned in 2008 no PDA has been declared.
At the same meeting council outlined federal election advocacy priorities and called on the commonwealth to bankroll the supply of trunk infrastructure required to deliver around 18,500 new dwellings for an estimated 42,500 people.
“While infrastructure charges (developer contributions) assist council in providing this essential infrastructure, there is a significant shortfall between the actual cost of that infrastructure and the amount recovered through these charges,” Mayor Amy Eden said.
“We’ll need funding support from both the state and federal governments to help cover this shortfall so housing can be delivered sooner whilst at the same time minimising the cost burden placed on local residents during a cost of living crisis.”
However Economic Development Queensland appeared to be in the dark about council’s position on the proposed PDA.
“EDQ is working with Cairns Regional Council to understand its position and why a Priority Development Area is their preferred mechanism to cater for growth in the Mount Peter area,” a spokesman said.
“This includes the need for specific housing requirements.”
NEW HOUSING DEBATE
Pressure has been mounting on Cairns Regional Council to approve new subdivisions at greenfield sites within the southern growth corridor amid a critical housing shortage.
Council has long argued sufficient land is available for housing development within the Priority Infrastructure Area calculated at 6000 lots based on an independent review understood to be done by Brisbane-based firm Intergran.
Council declined to provide any supporting documentation relating to the residential lot count and last week stood by lot figures.
“Which demonstrate there is sufficient land available within the Priority Infrastructure Area to achieve compliance with legislative benchmarks,” a council spokesman said.
The figure is in stark contrast to a UDIA count of 3300 lots available within land parcels with current preliminary and development approvals.
Chief executive of Construct Property Group Nathan Coe said a handbrake on trunk infrastructure has significant impacts for Cairns businesses and tradespeople.
“(Delivery of trunk infrastructure) would unlock a large amount of land down in that southern corridor which would allow a lot more growth in that area and a lot more people to get into homes at a more affordable price,” he said.
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