John Melton Black Drive developer faces a range of challenges
It’s been touted as a housing solution but a large block near the airport will need to overcome several challenges first. See what’s in the way.
Townsville
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Flood fears, contamination, and protecting the RAAF from noise pollution complaints would need to be managed before a large vacant block of land near the airport can be turned into much-needed housing.
During Wednesday’s full meeting of Townsville City Council, councillors considered how they could grant preliminary approval to override the city’s planning scheme to facilitate development of the 3.91ha land parcel at 78-94 John Melton Black Drive, Garbutt.
Gold Coast-based developer Garbutt Developments wanted the block’s “open space” zoning to be altered to allow for low and medium density residential, and small-scale commercial uses.
Councillor Ann-Maree Greaney highlighted a letter of opposition from the nearby Townsville RAAF Base which raised concerns about the proposed development area being affected by aircraft noise.
“There is therefore a material risk that highly annoyed residents may pursue council for failing to exercise a duty of care in approving a development without appropriate building standard enforcement and without warning residents of the nature of the noise exposure,” the Department of Defence said.
Townsville Mayor Jenny Hill was concerned about the dated flood mapping, saying that it would take a “lot of fill” to elevate the area an extra 86cm above the king tide level.
“The concern I have is the impact on local areas. I want to deal with that by trying to see if we can get them to change the built form ... (to) move away from building the traditional slab on the ground and go back to a smart form using the high-set concept,” Cr Hill said.
With PFAS contamination detected in the local ground water, the mayor worried it was also present in the soil, requiring “stringent conditions” against drilling bores, escavating below ground level, and treating any soil before dumping it in landfill.
“If you put a concrete pad down but it’s at (ground) level and then you build on top of that, you’re not going to disturb the site anywhere near as much,” she said.
She also wanted to see a “solid barricade” to protect environmentally sensitive grassland bordering on Mundy Creek.
The majority of councillors voted to grant preliminary approval to the proposal after hammering out amendments to ensure future development applications at the site came before council, it satisfied “operation works restrictions and building restrictions”, and noise disclosures were made to future property purchasers.
Cr Greaney was opposed because she didn’t think the proposal was consistent with the Townsville City Plan, while Cr Fran O’Callaghan said “no” due to uncertainties around the proposed medium density housing’s impact on airport traffic.
Originally published as John Melton Black Drive developer faces a range of challenges
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