Logan City’s rapid population growth, outpacing all other local government areas in the state, appears to have been directly addressed in the state government’s latest budget
$42 million – out of a total $50 million – was dedicated to delivering new roads and infrastructure to the Greater Flagstone Priority Development Area (PDA).
This includes the extension of Teviot Road and the creation of new roads to connect with future developments.
It covers 7188 hectares and is expected to be fully developed with 51,500 dwellings in around 30-40 years.
The government predicts the creation of just two roads – Flinders Lakes Drive and Water Main – will facilitate 7286 lots in the south-west part of the PDA by 2051.
The government said this would generate $683.5 million in residential civil construction costs and $2.01 billion in residential housing construction costs and create around 486 construction jobs over the next 30 years.
Mayor Jon Raven said while this was an effective way of kickstarting developments awaiting construction, he would have liked to see funding to subsidise Logan City council’s own burdening infrastructure costs.
Because of current state legislation, council is forced to subsidise developers around 50 per cent of the cost to build essential, shared infrastructure – roads, water and sewage.
According to council, it is costing ratepayers about $30,000 per lot.
Cr Raven said changes to the state government’s cap on infrastructure charges was unlikely to happen prior to the election this coming October.
However, he said it would be more likely to see funding for council in a post-election budget, “irrelevant of which side wins”.
“Next year we’ll have really clear data… about how much infrastructure council can’t afford,” Cr Raven said.
He said once council knows the specific number, it can approach the state government and say: “you don’t want to put up infrastructure charges during a housing crisis, but why don’t you fund this infrastructure that we can’t afford”.
“Then the state government can say ‘look at all this critical infrastructure we’re delivering’, and council doesn’t have to put rates up to pay for it – it’s win-win,” he said.
