Cairns council: Hefty discount for developer

A delay of almost a year on a development application has cost Cairns ratepayers with the developer receiving a fee waiver. KNOW MORE

Ratepayers are set to cover more than $150,000 in developer fees in a bid to press along one of the biggest new subdivisions in the city’s fastest growing suburb.

Frederik Kroymans has been the newest large-scale property developer to enter the Cairns market with a plan to build the potential 1500-lot Pinecrest estate in Mt Peter.

Stage one – the Rocky Creek precinct comprising 48 lots – was released last July.

An application for stage two was lodged in January last year, with preliminary approval granted in May.

However, Cairns Regional Council sought a masterplan for the development and did not issue a final decision notice until mid-November.

The first stage of the much-anticipated Pinecrest residential subdivision at Mt Peter was released on July 24, with 48 large lots priced from $210,000 in the Rocky Creek precinct. Picture: supplied.

During that time the fee for trunk infrastructure for an individual lot jumped from $25,200 to $30,667.

If the overall bill for Rocky Creek was charged back in May when preliminary approvals were granted, the bill would have been $856,800.

By November, it was more than $1m.

The council voted last week to waive the difference – a significant $155,562 reduction on the project’s bottom line.

The council hit developers and general ratepayers with a triple-whammy of cost increases late last year.

General households were forced to bear a 2.5 per cent residential rate rise and household water usage charges also jumped 16.3 per cent from $120 to $1.43 per kilolitre.

Council also eliminated discounted development fees that had been in place for more than a decade.

Planning and environment general manager Ed Johnson said the original development application was lodged under the previous fee structure.

The master plan for the first stage of the Pinecrest development at Mt Peter. Picture: supplied.

“Council supported for the charges to levied on that basis rather than the new fee structure,” Mr Johnson said.

“The partial waiver reduces the charges to align with the old fee structure. This is not uncommon in these types of instances,” he said.

Developer Frederik Kroymans said the increase was unexpected and he was pleased that it was waived.

He said the first stage of the development had just one lot remaining and engineering work was under way on stage two.

“We will get started on stage two as soon as we can, demand is quite strong,” he said.

In a world of “leprechaun-lot” subdivisions, Mr Kroymans is pursuing a larger-lot ethos where spacious backyards are the norm.

It is understood a retirement village is planned on the site in order to meet the council’s strict higher-density thresholds while keeping overall yard sizes much more generous.

Lot sizes for the Rocky Creek precinct were from 799sq m to 1242sq m.

Originally published as Cairns council: Hefty discount for developer