Yarrabilba supercity road sparks fears of land resumptions for dozens of Logan families

A southside council will go back to the drawing board for a four-lane road which was designed to plough through dozens of residential properties.

Chambers Flat Rd at peak hour; top; horticulturalist Gary Virk; and angry residents who say they have been kept out of the loop.

A southside council will go back to the drawing board for a four-lane road which was designed to plough through dozens of residential properties.

Logan City Council came under fire after it revealed plans to widen a major road linking to the supercity of Yarrabilba.

But on Wednesday, the council said it would put on ice plans to start building a sewage treatment plant in the area until next year and instead investigate the prospect of using that land for the road.

Logan City Council acting chief executive Silvio Trinca said planning for the Chambers Flat Wastewater Treatment Plant on Pleasant View Rd was well under way but the road “had thrown a spanner in the works”.

Land at Pleasant View Road will be considered for the new four-lane Yarrabilba supercity road.

He said planning for the sewerage plant could not be completed until “the likelihood” of a diversion of Chambers Flat Rd on to the site had been clarified.

“A recent consideration has been, should we be looking at locating part of the road through that site, now that we have ownership,” he said.

“We will need to work through that first prior to completing all the detailed planning for the site — so we are just monitoring that project.”

The council change in direction followed a story in the The Courier-Mail this week about residents’ anger over the prospect of losing land to the four-lane highway.

Plans to resume dozens of properties for the traffic-busting road to service the “supercity” triggered major backlash from rural ratepayers, who are also fighting the sewerage plant on their doorstep.

Logan City Council went into damage control last week after residents got wind of its latest plans to widen a two-lane road that services one of the state’s fastest growing housing estates.

The four-lane road is to cater for residents of Yarrabilba, an affordable housing project by multinational developer Lendlease inside a state government priority development area.

Chambers Flat road is a known death trap after four people have died on that stretch in the past six years.

Chambers Flat resident Kylie Reise, who lives on Kenny Rd which will be part of the new Yarrabilba route, said she was appalled at the way the council had unveiled the disruptive plans.

Kylie and Tom Reise outside their Chambers Flat property, which has a new fence which will be ploughed through when the road is widened.

“My family has been on this block of land for more than 20 years and we now stand to lose nearly half of the property with no information about compensation or any discussions,” she said.

“It’s a total disregard for residents.”

Horticulturalist Gary Virk, who lives on the opposite side of Kenny Rd, said the highway would crash through the middle of his $100,000 farm shed.

Chambers Flat horticulturalist Gary Virk, who is in danger of losing his shed when the road rams through his property.

“We have paid nearly $60,000 to get planning permission to clear our block so we can become organic gardeners but the road will go through the middle of my shed,” he said.

“It will also come as close as 2m to my front door, which will be impossible with the noise.”

Mr Virk’s next-door neighbour motorcycle mechanic Rodney Street said he also feared the roadside would be less than 1m from his doorstep.

“We all came out here to live on acreage blocks to have some space and peace and that’s all going to change and we won’t have any say in what happens,” he said.

“The council has completely ignored its own residents who have advocated a different route through an old dairy farm which the council recently purchased.
“That would not affect as many families.”

Chambers Flat residents fear losing their properties so Logan council can build a road to service the privately built Yarrabilba estate.

Judy Patterson, who lives on the corner of Chambers Flat Rd and Kenny Rd, said her property would become a traffic island when the project was completed.

“We will have road on all sides of the property as they are building the road behind our property,” she said.

“We were not even consulted because the council does not need to resume any of our property and so is trying to avoid compensation even though we will lose value.”

The Chambers Flat Community Centre, which is the home to the Mustang Football Club and the rural fire brigade, will also lose land.

The council’s land acquisition plans run from Anzac Ave at Logan Village through to Kenny Rd in Chambers Flat past an old dairy farm which the council bought in 2019 for a sewage treatment plant through to Logan Reserve Rd.

It coincides with a $1.2 billion state government-driven project undertaken by nine developers to upgrade 61 roads near the privately-developed Yarrabilba housing estate.

Yarrabilba in the south with Chambers Flat Rd going through Logan Village for commuters heading north to get into Brisbane.

Yarrabilba residents use Chambers Flat Rd to go north to Brisbane instead of Waterford-Tamborine Rd, notorious for clogging at the Larry Storey Bridge at Waterford West.

The plans, which are still in the “discussion” phase, have remained largely out of the public domain until residents started getting letters from a Logan City councillor about the land acquisitions.

Chambers Flat residents Harriet and Kenneth Aitken at their front gate which is part of the land the council will resume.

More than 60 people attended a last-minute community meeting to discuss the road this month.

Debate focused on two alternatives designed to result in fewer land resumptions but still solve the traffic congestion at Logan Village.

Logan councillor Scott Bannon suggested building the road west of Kenny Rd at Chambers Flat through the old dairy to appease Logan Village residents who have lodged formal complaints about the highway ploughing through their idyllic historical setting.

Chambers Flat resident Anthony Aitken said the council had tripled the budget for some sectors of the project and increased the road area when it was under administration in 2019.

Chambers Flat resident Anthony Aitken at the front of his parents’ property which is being resumed to widen Chambers Flat Rd.

He said the startling latest plans were unfair on both Logan Village and Chambers Flat.

“These communities are being affected all because of a housing estate at Yarrabilba which lacked infrastructure planning from the start,” he said.

“They have announced this section at Logan Reserve, pending budgets, but haven’t conducted any community consultation.”

Mr Aitken said the amount of compensation the council would be paying residents for their land was unknown but some Chambers Flat residents were quoted $20,000 for 1000 sqm in 2019 under previous plans.

Logan Mayor Darren Power realised the extent of fury over the plans and apologised to residents last week.

“I apologise for the use of the words ‘great news’ in my post and agreed this is perhaps insensitive to some local residents who may be impacted.”