Developer Fortress Group appealing council rejection of preliminary approval for 700-lot Mt Peter estate

A courtroom showdown is looming between the developer of a proposed 700-lot housing estate in Cairns’ southern growth corridor and Cairns Regional Council.

Mount Peter, located 15 kilometres south of the Cairns CBD between Edmonton and Gordonvale and the western side of the Bruce Highway. The area, known as the Cairns southern growth corridor, is masterplanned to house up to about 40,000 people in 18,500 homes. Picture: Brendan Radke

A courtroom showdown is looming after the developer of a proposed 700-lot housing estate in Cairns’ southern growth corridor appealed against a Cairns Regional Council decision to refuse the subdivision.

Fortress Group, the company behind Edenbrook — the proposed 706-home development in Mount Peter — has lodged an appeal with the Planning and Environment Court over the council’s rejection of a preliminary approval for the project in May.

Mediation between the developer and council in September did not resolve the dispute, and the court has ordered the parties to prepare expert witness statements in anticipation of going to trial.

The dispute comes amid a long-running housing and rental crisis in Cairns, where figures for August showed the rental vacancy rate – an indicator of what proportion of housing stock is available to renters – was at 0.6 per cent.

Fortress Group lodged its development application seeking a preliminary approval for the masterplanned 706-lot Edenbrook estate with the council in June 2023.

The 65ha site is currently a cane farm, located on Mount Peter Road, south of Mount Peter Estate and Mary MacKillop College.

Cairns Regional Council has rejected a bid to build a 706-home residential estate (in the red zone) in Mount Peter. Picture: Supplied

The council rejected the application at its ordinary meeting in May 2024, issuing a list of 29 reasons for refusal, including that the development was “out of sequence” and “does not provide sequential development from the north”, a lack of diversity in housing options, the subdivision layout was not “efficient or safe” in terms of transport and mobility, the land was outside of the Priority Infrastructure Area, and that it “may compromise the ability of future precincts to achieve the overall outcomes of the Mount Peter local plan”.

At that meeting, several councillors spoke about the development being “out of sequence”, meaning if it were approved the council would have to bring forward the delivery of major trunk infrastructure, out of step with the council’s Local Government Infrastructure Plan, at significant cost to the organisation and the potential detriment of surrounding developments.

In its appeal, Fortress Group has argued the preliminary approval should be granted as it was consistent with the area’s low-medium density residential code and the Mount Peter local plan code.

New home construction and house building under development at Mt Peter Estate in 2020 in the Cairns southern growth corridor. Picture: Brendan Radke

The company also stated the proposed development was consistent with and complementary to adjoining existing and approved developments, including the approved residential development in the Pinecrest Rocky Creek Precinct subdivision, development within the balance of the “Pinecrest Estate” locality to the northwest of the development, and residential developments in “The Grove” and Mount Peter Estate subdivisions.

Mount Peter was declared a master planned area in 2008, which means state and local governments agreed on plans to provide homes for 50,000 people – about half of the Far North’s predicted population growth – in the area over the next two to three decades.

Since the council’s rejection of its preliminary approval, Fortress Group has forged ahead, lodging a development application to subdivide 388 lots on one of its parcels of land at the site.

An information request from the council to Fortress Group dated August 30 suggests the organisation’s concerns over the development have not changed over the intervening months.

This year, developers Kroymans and Kenfrost have also lodged a number of development applications for major subdivisions in the Mount Peter area.

Cairns Regional Council declined to comment as the case is before the courts.

Fortress Group was contacted for comment through a representative.

Originally published as Developer Fortress Group appealing council rejection of preliminary approval for 700-lot Mt Peter estate