Logan City councillors this week endorsed a motion to rezone more than 30 blocks of land that have been deemed too flood-prone for living.
Thirty-two properties in the city – spanning Loganholme, Chambers Flat, Bethania, Waterford, Logan Reserve and more – were identified for the Queensland government’s ‘buy-back’ scheme due to the severity of past flooding and the potential for more.
This scheme allowed Logan council to buy eligible properties from land-owners – with prices based on each property’s pre-flooding value – and then demolish the houses to repurpose the blocks.
The program requires the council rezone the properties to be “non-habitable” to ensure no other homeowner suffers the same impact of flooding.
Only then will the council be fully reimbursed for all the costs associated with the purchases, demolition and land rehabilitation – including project management, legal and conveyancing costs.
According to program guidelines, the rezoning must come into effect before 30 June 2026 for the council to be reimbursed.
The zoning changes are expected to commence on 1 July 2025.
At the end of 2024, the Queensland Reconstruction Authority (QRA) confirmed to MyCity Logan that all the contracts with land-owners had settled, and all properties were either demolished or removed.
One property along Old Mill Road in Bannockburn, near the Albert River, was bought back and repurposed to extend Alexander Watt Park.
Many other buy-back properties will also be used to expand existing parks and to create new river access points and linkages.
Under the QRA fund, locals could register to be considered for one of three program options: the home buy-back scheme, a resilient retrofit, or home-raising.
Only properties that were the most severely impacted by flooding, and those at the greatest risk of future flooding, were eligible for the voluntary buy-back scheme.
Twenty-five other home-owners were recipients of grants that would enable them to raise their properties or make them flood-resistant.
These potentially life-saving purchases and grants were developed by the Queensland and Australian governments in response to the 2022 floods.
