Sunshine Coast Council grant Highworth retirement village preliminary approval

Neighbours have been left stunned after Sunshine Coast Council granted preliminary approval to a controversial retirement village near Nambour.

A controversial proposed retirement village near Nambour has been given the go ahead after Sunshine Coast Council granted developers a preliminary approval.

It comes after the council last month raised a number of concerns with the Grove Retirement project.

Andrew and Jo Pitcher of Highgate Developments lodged the development application last year for a retirement village on Savilles Road at Highworth.

It attracted strong opposition from a group of nearby residents who retained prominent Coast lawyer Peter Boyce to fight the proposal.

Updated documents show original plans for 275-home complex have been cut back to 236.

An updated design for the controversial proposed Highworth retirement village near Nambour.

A letter from the council sent on Wednesday to Grove Partners Pty Ltd, directed by Andrew and Jo Pitcher, said the development application for the facility had been given preliminary approval subject to 64 conditions.

They included building height restrictions of 8.5m, the removal of a proposed road crossing of a waterway and reducing proposed waterway crossings to necessary lightweight pedestrian crossings only.

The developers were also asked to provide a revised plan to demonstrate that management facilities and care facilities would be available to support and meet the needs of residents.

Savilles Road must also be provided with a minimum 2m wide footpath within the road verge for the entire length of the site frontage.

A stormwater management system also must be provided for the development.

Its design must ensure no worsened effects to downstream properties, cater for overland flows from all external catchments entering the site and direct all overland flows to a lawful point of discharge.

Andrew and Jo Pitcher are behind plans for a $70 million retirement village on Savilles Rd at Highworth.

Savilles Road resident Peter Bradford said he was still concerned by the density of the village as well as the earthworks.

He said the preliminary approval was given in the face of significant topographical, ecological and other concerns.

"A concerned group of local residents who will be directly affected and those further away who will also suffer from negative effects, have been making submissions to council to have the proposal reduced in size and impact," he said.

"The fact that the subject land is zoned low density residential allows for the proposal to be code assessable against a range of criteria, which many claim are too broad.

"It is another example of the population rush and overenthusiastic developers trumping common sense."

Sunshine Coast councillor David Law and Peter Bradford visit the potential site of a retirement village at Highworth.

Developer Andrew Pitcher did not respond to the Daily's request for comment.

However, he did respond on social media to Mr Bradford's concerns writing, "the density (of the development) is less than two-thirds of what is allowable in the zone".

"Vegetation and green space will amount to 57 per cent of the post development outcome, which is nearly seven hectares," he wrote.

In regards to traffic concerns, Mr Pitcher wrote "traffic will be no more than if an equivalent housing development occurred on this land, which has been zoned in this way for more than 20 years".

Mr Pitcher estimated about 250 jobs would be created during the project, with the "flow on effect to hardware, trade supplies, fuel and takeaways during this time to be also very positive".

Originally published as Sunshine Coast Council grant Highworth retirement village preliminary approval