Redland council protests secret state plan to declare Thornlands a priority development area

Confidential documents have revealed the Queensland Government is poised to seize planning control of a large tract of land south of Brisbane to build housing for 20,000 people.

A draft document from last year showing Minister Steven Miles calling on the council to undertake a comprehensive housing study.

A southside council has continued its bitter war with the state government after confidential documents showed the state was poised to seize planning control of a large tract of land in southern Thornlands and earmark it for housing for 20,000 people.

Redland City Council on Wednesday launched a full-scale objection to Deputy Premier and Local Government and Planning Minister Steven Miles’ plan to swoop on the parcel of land and take full control of all planning decisions in the area.

The land, bounded by Woodlands Dr, Springacre Rd, Taylor Rd, Boundary Rd, Duncan Rd and Mount Cotton Rd, is zoned rural non-urban, prohibiting industrial, commercial and housing developments.

Under the state’s proposed plan, the land would be declared a Priority Development Area with the government’s Economic Development Queensland managing all planning approvals.

Redland’s 10 councillors and mayor Karen Williams voted to write to Mr Miles expressing their concerns about “being forced” to open up the large area as part of a state government solution to Queensland’s housing crisis.

A map giving an indication of where the southern Thornlands area is located.

Ms Williams said council officers were concerned that “a pending priority development area” would be imposed on the city without collaboration with council and ignoring necessary infrastructure.

The mayor said she did not want residents to be forced to endure planning inadequacies such as at Yarrabilba in Logan plagued by road congestion.

She also said the council was not opposed to affordable housing but did not want a priority development without the infrastructure first.

“We’d like to make sure that the Minister understands that in the case the state does impose this (PDA) without our support, that the infrastructure required to support the number of new residents needs to be included,” she said.

“We are letting the state know that there will be significant impacts on our infrastructure with that sized PDA.”

Fox and Bell’s Shoreline development where there is no connection to a town sewerage system. Picture: Contributed

Council planning officers told the meeting that opening up the land for housing would not solve the state’s current housing crisis.

“This is not a matter of a lack of housing supply because Redland council is meeting all its required supply targets right up until 2031,” officers told the meeting.

“This is an issue of timing and timely release of land.

“ … If a (PDA) designation is made, it’s probably going to be a number of years before the planning is completed.

“Obviously, a key limitation for developing this area that we’re well aware of is wastewater infrastructure.

“There’s issues already down at Shoreline right now in delivering infrastructure like that.

“So to accommodate a development of this scale, which is essentially probably twice the size of Shoreline, is going to be something of a challenge.”

A Redland City Council graphic showing the Southern Thornlands growth area with red indicating a mixed industry business area; white for rural residential; yellow for transport users precinct; blue for education, training and tourism; and purple for storage and larger-scale home-based enterprises.

Officers also told the meeting there had been a “chronic underinvestment” by the state in provision of affordable public housing with 900 families in Redland waiting on the register and 27,000 across the state.

Officers also said confidential state government reports showed Redland had at least 15 years of “appropriately zoned” land to accommodate future residential growth with the possibility of enough developable land to 2041 and beyond.

A spokesman for the State Development, Infrastructure, Local Government and Planning department said Southern Thornlands had not been declared a Priority Development Area.

“We will continue to work with the local council on determining appropriate planning mechanisms for their community,” the spokesman said.

“Since 2017, Southern Thornlands has been identified as a Potential Future Growth Area under the current regional plan.

“All Potential Future Growth Areas require further detailed investigations to determine what their future use is and when this is needed.

“A recent local scheme amendment from the council proposed rural residential style development as well as mixed industry business.

“The state continues to work with the council to determine the preferred future land use outcome for this site to meet the shared objectives of both local and state governments noting that rural residential style development is not currently supported in this location by the state.”

In March last year, residents of the South Thornlands and Sheldon area were shocked to receive emails informing them the council wanted to rezone 900 hectares of land in their neighbourhood for another recreational precinct, industrial estate and housing.

Southern Thornlands land owner Mike O’Brien, who has been pushing for the land bank to be unlocked so he can develop his acreage block, welcomed news of the state priority development area plan.

Southern Thornlands land owner Mike O’Brien welcomed plans to open up more land for housing.

However, he thought it would be unlikely that the state would provide infrastructure funding without Redlands council committing to providing quality residential development land or investigating future growth areas.

“Since before 2018, the state government has been requesting Redland council to investigate this area for future residential development but the council has completely ignored the state’s requests for almost four years — in the same way it refused to provide an updated housing and supply strategy,” Mr O’Brien said.

“The council only commenced the investigation in late 2021 after receiving a very strict Ministerial Directive and even then refused to consider any residential development and instead proposed only rural development across the entire area.

“Even the public consultation was marred with many multiple submissions from single households and the council’s own planning officer claiming the data collected was ‘definitely skewed’.”

Capalaba MP Don Brown said the council’s protest against a Priority Development Area at Southern Thornlands was hypocritical.

“The mayor is now anti-PDAs after being the champion of two of them, including Toondah Harbour,” he said.

“In the middle of a housing crisis, this mayor is refusing to plan or even produce a housing strategy.

“The state government is currently delivering new road upgrades, a satellite hospital and a new primary school for (Shoreline) a development the mayor voted for outside of the urban footprint, which the mayor can’t even get the sewerage to.”

Originally published as Redland council protests secret state plan to declare Thornlands a priority development area