You might have seen headlines about the growth forecast for South East Queensland after the Queensland Government released the latest version of the Shaping SEQ Regional Plan.
The Regional Plan anticipates almost 6 million people will live in South East Queensland by 2046.
The City of Logan is being asked to create housing, jobs and quality lifestyles for 311,300 additional residents, bringing our 2046 population to 662,000.
That’s a significant jump from our current population of 350,740.
Councils around SEQ pushed hard to have input into the new Plan to make sure local knowledge was front of mind.
As mayors, we didn’t want our cities to be planned by people who didn’t understand our unique attributes.
We encouraged our staff to be headstrong about making sure our policy positions on growth and infrastructure were included.
It is good news that no new Priority Development Areas (PDAs) – similar to Greater Flagstone or Yarrabilba – were announced, and the urban footprint has stayed the same ensuring development won’t sprawl any further, with a priority on unlocking under-utilised land.
Logan City council welcomes growth and we have consistently met all housing targets set by the Queensland Government.
I have been advocating for quite some time about the financial challenges we face – in particular, infrastructure charges – to deliver critical infrastructure in emerging neighbourhoods.
We have a responsibility to current residents and ratepayers not to overcommit our limited financial resources towards unnecessary spending, so growth must be well planned.
Equally, the Queensland Government needs to continue delivering infrastructure to support transport and jobs.
In accordance with legislation, council is currently updating our own planning scheme and has taken the first steps towards introducing Logan Plan 2025 to guide the unprecedented growth ahead of us.
The current draft Logan Plan 2025 includes fresh ideas on how life in the city could look and operate as we grow, including ways to boost our nighttime economy.
I have no doubt the young families who value Logan’s affordability and quality lifestyles will benefit from these proposals.
Watch this space as we’re hoping to share more information about the draft Logan Plan 2025 with our community after it undergoes a mandatory state interest review.
In the meantime, I encourage everyone to read the Queensland Government’s latest updates and provide input through online engagement hub (shapingseq.statedevelopment.qld.gov.au) or attend a community information session on August 24 at Logan West Community Centre, Hillcrest, from 11am to 2pm.
