Agnes Water retirement and health precinct gets green light

Retirement options at Agnes Water to receive a massive boost in the coming years.

Retirement options at Agnes Water to receive a massive boost in the coming years. Picture: Aerial Media Gladstone

RETIREMENT options at Agnes Water are set to receive a massive boost in the coming years with a development application for a Health and Wellbeing Precinct gaining preliminary approval by Gladstone Regional Council yesterday.

The precinct is likely to feature a retirement facility and hospital or health service provider and will be built on an 88ha site just north of the Agnes Water town centre with 690m of frontage along Captain Cook Dr.

The applicant, Sunshine State Developments Pty Ltd and Jamworth Pty Ltd, will split Lot 2 of Captain Cook Dr into two lots, with the retirement facility and hospital expected to be built on each lot.

The approval is based on 41 conditions including water, sewerage, stormwater, transportation and landscaping.

Gladstone mayor Matt Burnett said the council had been wanting Queensland Health to have a presence in the area for some time.

"This will help trigger that because you'll have a potential retirement village and health services next door," Cr Burnett said.

"It will be a fantastic outcome for Agnes Water and we've been pushing for a Queensland Health presence there for a number of years.

"You can have the hospital without the retirement village but I don't think you can have the retirement village without a hospital or health service.

"It's pretty exciting and this is the beginning of many for us."

A development application for a Health and Wellbeing Precinct has gained preliminary approval by Gladstone Regional Council. It's likely to feature a retirement village and hospital/health centre. Picture: Contributed

Cr Burnett said a decision made by the council in July to offer a 50 per cent discount off charges for development applications other than residential applications helped seal the deal.

"This is a preliminary approval but once they lodge their actual approval and get their infrastructure charges they'll be reimbursed 50 per cent of them," he said.

"The idea was to encourage that sort of development, not residential subdivisions, but for projects like aged care and retirement facilities."

The Mayor said interest in retirement facilities wasn't just restricted to Agnes Water.

"It's good to see these type of developments, not just in Agnes, but there is interest right across the region for retirement villages and aged care which is exactly what we need," Cr Burnett said.

"We heard that through the by-election that a lot of people were talking about it.

"Retirement facilities and aged care isn't the responsibility of council, but we're encouraging it with this incentive policy."

Cr Burnett said the preliminary application is current for 10 years.

Yesterday's approval comes off the back of a recent development application for the Vellamo Lifestyle Living Development project on Bryant St at Agnes Water.