12:00a.m. 5th June 2008

| Bill Hoffman and Carolyn Tucker

State government plans announced yesterday to accommodate at least 75,000 more people on the Sunshine Coast are in conflict with the regional council’s mandate to slow growth to the national average.

Coast mayor Bob Abbot said last night he had received a 70 per cent mandate from the electorate for a policy platform of sustainability and slowed growth.

Mr Abbot said the council and the state were already struggling to keep pace with the infrastructure needed for existing growth. “It’s just madness,’’ he said.

Premier Anna Bligh has announced that residential development at Maroochydore, Meridan Plains, Palmview and Caloundra South would be fast-tracked in what she described as a bid to tackle spiralling housing affordability in south-east Queensland.

“We have to accelerate land becoming available so that first home buyers can actually take advantage of our stamp duty cuts in the budget yesterday,’’ Ms Bligh said. “Ensuring that houses remain affordable, particularly for first home buyers, means tackling supply, and then tackling demand. We need to make sure that there is sufficient land coming to market.’’

The question the government could not answer last night was whether developers would be required to meet a land release deadline for approvals achieved through fast-tracking.

Mr Abbot said the decision had come out of left field, would not address housing affordability and may even increase speculation. There were no council blockages to development approvals which were being processed normally.

“The only way to guarantee affordable housing is for state, council and developer partnerships to build good standard homes that would be managed by someone like the Queensland Housing Commission and offered at 15% under market rents,’’ Mr Abbot said.

The four Coast sites named for fast-tracking are among 17 greenfield sites identified by a review commissioned by Ms Bligh last year. Maroochydore and Meridan Plains were already in the approval system while Palmview and Caloundra South had previously been slotted for development after 2016.

Meridan Plains would accommodate 10,000 people, Palmview, between 12,500 and 15,000, and Caloundra South, 50,000.

Planning portfolio chairman Russell Green said the infrastructure needed to service the developments would cost billions of dollars and take years to build.

“It is a case of when and how and who,’’ he said.

“What sort of short cuts will occur to achieve these outcomes?

“Will they not require environment impact or traffic studies? And when the approvals are given, what are the implications of this volume of people arriving when our infrastructure is already depleted?’’

The government will also seek other greenfield sites inside the urban footprint of the SEQ Regional Plan that may be suitable for fast-tracking.

Ms Bligh said an implementation team would remove impediments by Christmas to development at 12 SEQ sites, including:

200ha along Maroochy Boulevade, Maroochydore, and;

600ha at Meridan Plains bordered by Parkland Boulevarde and Meridan Way.

By this time next year, she said the government and council would have approved for development:

800ha at Palmview off Bellflower Road, and;

3200ha at Caloundra South, off Bells Creek Road.