Insiders reveal update to massive Highfields town centre plan

A new town centre for Highfields and the sell-off of a former nursery are among a number of decisions by the Toowoomba council that still haven’t been completed years after elected officials voted on them.

MASTER DESIGNS: Concept art of what the future Highfields CBD will look like, after the master plan was endorsed by the council.

A new town centre for Highfields and the sell-off of a former nursery are among a number of decisions by the Toowoomba council that still haven’t been completed years after elected officials voted on them.

Council chief executive Brian Pidgeon has revealed a slate of open decisions that still to be completed, with some dating back more than three years.

Six of the ongoing matters have been open for more than 350 days, with most relating to either urban development or housing.

MASTER DESIGNS: Concept art of what the future Highfields CBD will look like, after the master plan was endorsed by the council.

The most significant of the decisions is the divestment strategy for the Central Highfields structural plan, which is supposed to create a new town centre for the growing community and supercharge commercial development.

It is believed this divestment could be worth tens of millions of dollars to council.

While the most recent decision from council dates back to July 2022, the concept has been in development since 2017 after the TRC bought the 19-hectare parcel of land off Highfields Road from property developer Clive Berghofer for nearly $8m.

After plans were endorsed in December 2019, the project has seen minimal public development despite calls from the Highfields Chamber of Commerce in 2022 for the council to fast-track it.

According to the open decisions register, the town centre is “on hold for further information”.

The TRC has already started upgrading the roads and installing essential infrastructure like sewerage at the site, including the O’Brien and Kratzke Road intersection realignment worth about $12m.

Planning and development general manager Nikola Stepanov was spotted out at the town centre site on Monday.

FUTURE LOOK: An overhead layout view of the new Highfields Central master plan.

It is believed the council will get the chance to have another look at the master plan within a few weeks, after which the council will commission a development application and move ahead to selling off parcels to developers.

The longest-standing decision on the register is the planned sale of the former council nursery on Ramsay Street in Middle Ridge, which has been open for more than 600 days.

The motion in November 2021 was for council to explore turning the nursery site into a residential subdivision, which is currently “in progress”.

Other longstanding actions include developing a local law to stop shopping trolleys being dumped around Toowoomba (March 2022), the Toowoomba Housing Choice Feasibility Study, a motion to explore turning the Neil Street car park into a mixed-use development and review its parking strategy.