A $136 million pledge will be a saving grace for Logan’s ratepayers struggling to afford the road, water and sewerage needed to support new housing.
Last week, it was announced the Queensland government would fund almost half of the cost of a new wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) at Chambers Flat, which will allow 20,000 homes to be built.
Mayor Jon Raven said the plant, to be built within the next three years, was needed to service the housing growth in areas such as Yarrabilba, Park Ridge and Chambers Flat, and to avoid the slowing down of house construction.
“To build homes during a housing crisis, water and sewer come first. They’re also the most expensive infrastructure,” Cr Raven said.
“While it’s not convenient, you can drive on congested roads. But you can’t have houses without running water and flushing toilets.
“Without this funding we would not have been able to afford to build this critical housing enabling infrastructure. It was not in our long-term financial plan or calculated as part of our future borrowings.”
Without the funding, Cr Raven said Logan would have had to sacrifice other infrastructure or raise rates in order to fund the plant.
But it’s not the only way the state government can relieve the challenges of rising costs.
For several years, council has called on the current and previous governments to increase the amount local governments can charge developers to build the essential trunk infrastructure to support new housing – such as roads, power, water, and other shared services.
Currently, there is a cap on these charges that covers about 50% of the actual cost to build the infrastructure – which comes out to around $30,000 per lot.
This means ratepayers are subsidising developers the remaining 50%.
“Before the state election I asked both sides of politics to increase the cap in infrastructure charges so we could afford to build the infrastructure needed for the fastest growing city in Queensland,” Cr Raven said.
“They both said no.
“But premier David Crisafulli promised to help local government with the cost of infrastructure – and he has kept that promise by helping Logan with this much-needed wastewater treatment plant.”
For the first 5-10 years, the Chambers Flat WWTP will support growth in Yarrabilba.
Under the Subregional Infrastructure Agreement (SRIA) with Economic Development Queensland, Logan council is required to provide trunk infrastructure for the Yarrabilba and Greater Flagstone priority development areas (PDA), which the mayor said was built into the council’s long-term financial plan.
“The other infrastructure for this PDA is funded by the state, including the only road that services it (Waterford-Tamborine Rd).
“By the time the trunk sewer line for Park Ridge and surrounding suburbs (including Chambers Flat) is connected to the WWTP, our long-term financial plan has funding available to support the infrastructure needed for these suburbs as they are part of the Planning Scheme (2015 and the Logan Plan).
“One thing that would make a huge difference to our bottom line, as well as our ability to service debt and keep rates down, is if the federal government was able to resolve the challenge with depreciation for local councils.”
