The Kooya Rd site is too important to be turned into unsustainable and unaffordable urban lots. Sign up on this page to be on my email list to stay up-to-date with our campaign for community views to be heard.
The community in Mitchelton first brought this issue to my attention, as they have grave concerns about the impact this development will have on the wider community. The owner wanted it to be bought by Council and retained as a public green space, but Council "couldn't come to terms" with his estate. The Uniting Church in Australia Property Trust, who is developing the site, are determined to build 90+ unsustainable housing lots, and it seems Council want to help them.
This site could be perfect for mixed-use, maximising the benefit to the community. It could have an amazing public park, protected bushland reserve, facilities like a meeting hall and community garden, while if some of the lot is kept for new housing, it should be well-designed public or affordable homes that’ll tackle the housing crisis, not million-dollar-plus McMansions that require air-conditioning to be liveable. Meanwhile, this area already desperately needs public and active transport infrastructure to relieve traffic pressures -- but Council have made no plans to address the impacts this development would have on the wider community, even though their own assessors have concerns about this DA increasing the risk of flooding.
The proposed development at 76 Kooya Rd is completely inadequate and inappropriate. It will deliver unaffordable and unsustainable homes, with practically no public parkland, no plan for the bushland (which will remain in private hands), and no additional public amenity. It contains no plan for how to deal with the problem of increased congestion on Samford Road. The DA for the site contravenes the City Plan in many significant ways.
I’d like to see that, at a minimum, 25% of any development on the site would be set aside for public and genuinely affordable homes, and that all homes are well-designed and sustainable (which is currently absolutely not the case). We’re in a housing crisis and in Mitchelton, house prices have skyrocketed to $1 million on average – suggesting that at least one-quarter of any new homes should be actually affordable is very reasonable.
I consulted with an independent planning expert and, at a public forum on this issue, together we presented alternatives for developing the site. These ideas work with the flow of the land, retain valuable wildlife habitat and shade trees, and some even house more people than the developer's proposal.
I've called on the federal government to buy the site, and run a genuine community engagement process to determine the best use of the site.
Updates
Developer response to Council June 2024
In early June, the developer finally responded to BCC's request for more information. The community quickly noticed that the developer not only has not addressed the substance of the environmental concerns, but now proposes to spend money buying environmental offsets to "make it okay" that they will bulldoze mature trees and destroy habitat and valuable urban green space!
Here are some of the community comments on the response:
“they have done nothing to make this better for our community. The increased flooding (still), the refusal to give us a path along Kooya Road, paying $100,000 in offsets so they can cut down protected trees are just a few of the short-cuts they are making to get what they want.”
“That’s horrific. Nothing sustainable about the design and future planning. All of these “cookie cutter” homes will have no breezes or natural ventilation. Furthermore, hardly any backyard.”
The developer is well aware the community wants sustainable development on this important site, but instead of responding to the community’s reasonable request, they have invested months of time in tweaking the edges of their unsustainable proposal – and now propose to buy dodgy “environmental offsets”, as though offsets can provide shade on a hot summers’ day.
Developer response to Council November 2023
At the end of the prescribed submission period for this DA, Council asked the developer to respond to a number of issues with the application. These included concerns about protected trees, stormwater management, overland flow and bushfire hazard.
The response from the developer does include some concessions, which is a positive sign that community pressure is working. The increase of the park by over 600 sqm, for example. However, the plan is still for 90+ high-value detached homes in an area with poor public transport infrastructure.
This application should not be approved, as it is not compliant with the current planning instruments for the area. I wrote to the Chair of the Council’s City Planning and Suburban Renewal Committee to remind him of the obligation to assess under the law, and dozens of community members wrote to the Lord Mayor to tell him that Council should not be amending planning instruments to suit developers. People that wrote to the Lord Mayor didn't receive replies until after the Council election and, perhaps unsurprisingly given their record to date, his response said nothing of substance.
In February 2024, BCC's Development Services once again asked the developer to provide more information, citing major concerns such as bushfire hazard and flood risk.
Draft changes to Local Government Infrastructure Plan give up community use
Brisbane City Council have published the draft of their next LGIP (Local Government Infrastructure Plan). What this document describes is the projects that the Council are saying are on the agenda over the next ten years (although not necessarily funded in the budget).
The previous plan described the Kooya Road site as being the location for a 4.5 hectare district recreational park. The site at 76 Kooya Road would still have “emerging community zone” for more houses, but they would go in alongside a new, big park with lots of space for community facilities, and if designed well could work well with the local bushland around Enoggera Hill. The development application on the site, being considered by Council, ignored that 4.5ha park and would put in just 0.7ha of public space.
It was very interesting to see in the new draft LGIP that the Council has quietly deleted their plans for a 4.5ha park and replaced them with plans for an only 0.8ha park. From there it’s barely a concession to the developers to allow their vision of a poor 0.7ha park. When the local community has been up in arms about this development not providing the park space that Council had supposedly been planning for, it seems suspicious to have the planned park re-aligned to be closer to the developer’s proposal.
You can find more information about the proposed changes to the LGIP here, and make a submission by emailing Council at [email protected] or phoning 07 3403 8888.
Submissions on the DA closed
Submissions closed on the Kooya Road development on 26 July 2023.
I made a submission on the development on 12 July. You can read my submission here.
Yard signs around in Mitchelton
My office created these yard signs for the community to put up, banding together to show united opposition to this development application.
Background
You may have heard about the proposed Development Application (DA) for 76 Kooya Road – and it’s a doozy. On this site, developers will put in 91 unsustainable and unaffordable urban lots, and retain only a small portion of the site for public use. This plan for dense lots will increase urban heat and put lots more cars into an area with no plan to relieve traffic with additional public and active transport infrastructure. You can find more information about the DA on Council’s development.i website here.
The Neighbourhood Plan and Long Term Infrastructure Plan suggests much more of the site should be kept as public parkland. A big public park could include other facilities like a meeting hall, community garden and playground for local kids. The proposed park, as well as being much smaller than that suggested in the Long Term Infrastructure Plan, would also largely be filled with big protected trees, limiting usable space.
Since this application was put forward, many locals reached out to me to ask me to support the fight against this development. I started an online survey and it’s clear that 95% of residents don’t support the DA in its current form, and over 90% think the site should be brought into public ownership so that it can be used for the good of the community.
While we had heard that Brisbane City Council may be considering purchasing the site, it turned out that wasn’t the case at all. I called on the Federal Government to step in and buy the site if Council wouldn’t. This site is too important to be turned into unsustainable and unaffordable urban lots.
By working with the community, we can plan for a better vision for the site, that could include mixed-use, and more generous green space alongside community facilities and properly cared-for bushland. Given that we’re in a housing crisis and house prices in Mitchelton have skyrocketed up to $1 million, it would make sense to keep a portion of the lot for some public or affordable housing that will actually help to relieve the housing crisis.
Join the Conversation
Some locals have set up a Facebook group "Friends of Hungerford Farm" for members of the community opposing the development. I recommend you join the conversation with your neighbours there!