12:00a.m. 24th April 2008

| By Jane Gardner

Mayor Bob Abbot has outlined his plan to control rampant population growth on the Sunshine Coast, by reducing the rate to the national average by 2023.

Mr Abbot yesterday responded to the latest figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics showing our population growth is now at 3.5% a year, the third highest in the state behind the Gold Coast and Brisbane.

He said it was an unacceptable rate and would cost the community “millions” in the long run.

“My understanding is the national average is around about 2%, that means we’re running at about one and a half times the national average,” he said.

“That’s going to cost this communities millions in the future and really take away from all the things we enjoy here.

“If we could bring it back to something like just above or at the national average over the next 15 years, then I think this community has a real chance.”

He said in 2008, we had reached a point where the Sunshine Coast was generating its own economy and could afford to slow the level of growth.

“The damage hasn’t been done, I think we can certainly pull it back.

“The Sunshine Coast now is at a size where it can start to generate its own economy, it can start to generate all of those things that are important to us.

“We have the capacity now to start building a good transport system, we’ve got all those things in place.

“More and more growth is just going to make those things more and more difficult to do.”

Latest figures show the Sunshine Coast’s population grew from Sunshine Coast 247,200 in 2001 to 303,050 last year.

In the year to June 2007, Caloundra’s population grew by 2892, to 96,140. Maroochydore’s grew 4574 to 157,238 and Noosa’s population grew 0.9%, or by 459 people, to 49,672.

A workshop has been planned next month to develop what Mr Abbot calls practical solutions to the population issue.

High on the agenda is reviewing the current Local Growth Management Strategies.

When asked if a population cap would be appropriate, he replied: “The reality is that every planning scheme has a cap and that’s what I’ve been trying to say now for 10 years.

“What causes the growth rate to blow up like it does, is that the local councils tend not to stick to their planning schemes well enough.

“We have problems with the local growth management schemes on the Sunshine Coast which we have to try and resolve.

“We have to try and pull back the level of expansion in the next 10 years.”

The Sunshine Coast’s peak development organisation, the UDIA, has reacted with diplomacy.

Association president David Oliver said reducing the population wouldn’t necessarily have a negative effect on the development industry.

“If that’s his goal, then that’s fine, because it’s still a fairly significant growth rate,” Mr Oliver said.

“Growth is still growth.

“All we want the new council to do is manage the growth and efficiently.”

Speaking on behalf of major developers Stockland and Juniper, he expressed cynicism for Mr Abbot’s plan.

“How you are going to stop people coming here, I’m not sure,” he said.

“Good luck to him on his long term plan, but right now we just want council to manage the growth we’re experiencing.”

Tony Quinn, a foreman with Pumicestone Passage Developments, said he had worked in the local building industry for 40 years and would hate to think of the repercussions on an industry level should the population growth rate slow down.

“There have been a lot of changes, and right now business is booming,” he said.

“Our company has grown substantially in the last couple of years and if development does slow down, we will need to reduce staff numbers accordingly.”