Coast council calls for 'smart growth'
12:00a.m. 23rd July 2008
Just 12 weeks into its term, the Sunshine Coast council has drawn a line in the sand on the values it will fight to protect and the future to which it aspires.
Key elements of its planning direction are outlined in a Growth Management Position Paper it will submit this month for consideration in the state government’s SEQ Regional Plan review.
The state government believes an additional 600,000 people to that estimated under the regional plan would have to be catered for by 2026 and even more by its extended 2031 timeframe.
Sunshine Coast council is prepared only to accept population targets for this region subject to a review of residential carrying capacity.
Speaking during discussion on the draft document on Monday, Mayor Bob Abbot said the government was trying to roll out 20 years of growth in 12 months.
However, that could not happen without the infrastructure to support it.
Mr Abbot said that if developers were required to deliver infrastructure upfront, they would not be able to drip-feed supply into the market.
And he made it clear there could be no growth without the infrastructure first being in place to support it.
Mr Abbot called on the region to look at the work produced by councillors and staff to see if it was what they were looking for from their council.
Economic development and council entrepreneurship chairman Lew Brennan said the council’s strategy was an integrated, well-thought-out smart approach to growth – not “dumb growth”.
Strategy and planning portfolio chairwoman Vivien Griffin, the head of the council’s integrated transport portfolio, said the council took the implications of peak oil, climate change, emissions trading, and water and food security very seriously.
Ms Griffin said the growth management position paper incorporated measures to protect land for food production, looked at renewable energy opportunities and had a clear focus on public transport.
It also excludes from development land within the SEQ Regional Plan considered unsuitable because of flood risk.
Ms Griffin said the council aspired for the Sunshine Coast to become the most sustainable region in Australia.
“If the state government is not clear about our intention and its clear, researched justification, we can’t just sit back and expect it to do it for us,’’ she said.
“The council is focused on the real world and wants to deliver a great region for the community.
“If the state government wants to turn us into a second- rate urban city it would be putting at risk key breathing space for the rest of south-east Queensland.’’
Ms Griffin, whose input into the position paper was roundly applauded by all councillors on Monday, said the creation of an amalgamated single Sunshine Coast council had provided an opportunity for great regional solutions for planning, localised food production and public transport.
She said the council wanted to demonstrate to the state government that there was a better way of managing growth.
The push for an additional 260,000 dwellings needed to be tested against the region’s sustainable carrying capacity, she said.
The message that the council will send to the state government is contained within its philosophy for managing growth.“The economic strength of the Sunshine Coast region derives from its attractiveness and distinctiveness as a relaxed coastal region with a great lifestyle and natural environment,’’ it says.
“Our considerations on sustainable population growth must ensure that we do not put this economic strength at risk through losing the characteristics that create it in the first place.
“We also recognise that we have a vital role in the region by providing quality recreational experiences for the 4.3 million south-east Queensland residents projected by 2031,” it states.
“Again, that experience must not be put at risk by population growth that degrades that experience for SEQ residents.”
The position paper strives to provide policy settings capable of reducing the current per capita ecological footprint to the maximum degree possible.
Every opportunity to reduce energy and water consumption and to encourage use of public transport would be maximised to ensure community resilience.
Ms Griffin described the discussion around development of the strategy as being “at the heart of where this community goes in the future”.
Councillors want a single regional planning scheme in place within this term to replace the old Maroochy, Noosa and Caloundra schemes under which applications are still being assessed.
Ms Griffin said staff thought that was a big ask.
However, they could already appreciate that there was a new vision and a new energy and were welcoming the opportunities that delivered.
“It’s up to the council to set the direction,’’ she said.
“I have every confidence in the skills, ability and energy of the staff to deliver a great result.’’
Sunshine Coast Environment Council spokeswoman Sonia Marshall said she had yet to see the detail of the document but was delighted by the decision to keep growth within the existing urban footprint.
She said she had slight concern about any expansion of the footprint in Beerwah which would need to be sensitive to rural areas.
The document will be considered by the state government as part of its SEQ Regional Plan review.
It will be made available for comment and submissions as part of that process later this year.
Recent Comments
Rather than trying to find ways to undermine their new "stronger councils" planning visions perhaps the State could put that effort into planning their own sustainable vision for SEQ. Perhaps the Smart State could start some innovative planning and doing something Smart for a change.
Find a way to either control the rate of population growth downwards to meet our infrastructure and environmental capacity...or upgrade our infrastructure and reduce our environmental impacts BEFORE we start cramming all the extra people in.
When the predictable orgy of self congratulation dies down the Council might explain to the community what real action it proposes.
The difference between vision and aspiration and feel good fantasy is a credible capacity and capability and an action plan.
It's time for the Council to put rubber on the road (or bike path). It needs to be now because the issues are here and are not going to stop while the Council attempts to get its act together.
The Council might explain in real terms to explain to the community what employment, housing and community outcomes the plan will generate (and that the community has apparently agreed to and accepts responsibility for).
It might ask the young people who have to leave the area to gain fulltime employment to be able to enter the housing market what they think of a more of the same employment strategy. It might ask the underemployed people who live here what they think about employment here. It might ask groups looking for a subsidy or discount who they think should pay it.
As its presented the reported economic development strategy creates no new wealth here, it depends on people here having it or on others coming here with it (and preferably leaving having left it here).
And as Nero fiddled, the Sunshine Coast...sorry Rome burned.
Neither did the previous three plans. Unless continued construction of new dwellings to allow interstate and overseas people to move here and bring their money with them is a wealth and employment strategy. Of course, these new people will also be looking for work, wont they? And I'm sure that they won't be keen to spread their imported wealth around too much either.
The State's SEQ Regional Plan also does not address the issues of the wealth and employment of the local population. It has been described as a Land Use Plan. Nothing more, nothing less.
What we really need on the Coast is some Value Added business activity and the production of products and services which can be sold to other regions. We have very little of this type of activity here.
Hopefully, now that the Council has addressed the Budget and the Local Growth Management Strategies which the State was pressuring it for, it might be able to move onto some of the other issues which you mention. However, I hope that the State also does its part. The Wealth, industry and employment of the local people is more their responsibilty than the Council's as far as I'm concerned.
Unfortunately it would seem to me that multiple layers of government will claim they can but also can't deliver on one subject eg affordable housing.
This hottish topic has been branded by all 3 levels of government as being dealt with. The realty is, the State should implement it with more funds from the Feds and contributions by Local government eg Planning Scheme for donated properties / development etc.
The state already has a Housing department and after decades of neglect, affordable housing has become an issue. Maybe some cheaper but respectable homes are part of the solution. My parents (battlers) purchased a Housing Commission home in the late fifties and dad still lives in it - his castle.
A development strategy run locally which identifies what's needed, who does and can do what, who's got the money, how they're engaged across levels of Government etc would be one way ahead.
It's not rocket science, could be developed and run locally (with some imagination) and offers the prospect of possible results.
Wouldn't take much to do either. It will win the next election.
How can there be 600,000 people up here in the next 20 years? As if we will get any public transport investment up here? There is no broad economic basis that drives jobs here. We are not a port, or a financial, head/regional office, or manufacturing centre nor do we have a hinterland that we support (eg like Newcastle in NSW). Where is our 8 line highway that the Gold Coast has or their railway line? With this amount of people who will holiday here? Our beaches are crowded now in the holiday period and we have traffic grid lock.
Luckily I work for myself and can work any where in Australia . Like many people that I speak too, I do not wish to live here if this is our future. This is the size of Perth in the 1990's and there is no underlying economic basis to support this model nor infrastructure plan.
This migration of people when the retire to the SunBelts (Florida) has been occurring fo many yers in the US.
It good to hear that some of the NIMBYs like Ontrack are thinking of moving on.
We need industry if we are to support 600,000 people plus tourists here. Effectively the State Government planners are trying to build a new city on the Coast with no natural reason for it to be here.
Have your say
We welcome comments on our stories and blogs - after all it's your site. Please note comments should be on-topic and not abusive. Comments are checked before publication.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts
Your comments will be checked, for legal reasons, before being posted live.
Thanks again for contributing to the Daily's online community.
We value your views.
Comment again