Work to begin on nearly 500 homes in Brisbane’s north ‘within months’
The Crisafulli government has announced that a former state-owned energy site north of Brisbane will be transformed into a mixed-use residential precinct with around 500 homes, with work on the vacant block set to begin within months.
The 6.4-hectare site on Blinzinger Road in Banyo was used by Energex as an electrical transformer refurbishment facility from the 1950s, but was decommissioned in 2007.
Demolition work to clear the site was carried out a decade later, but the block has stood empty ever since.
On Monday, Deputy Prime Minister Jarrod Bleijie announced the site would be developed into a mixed-use residential precinct comprising 207 townhomes, a 180-bed aged care facility and 64 affordable units, delivered in partnership with Mission Australia Housing.
“People will be operating in this area within a few months, and then construction will start early next year,” said Bleijie, who also serves as the province’s planning minister.
“We can’t get any faster than this.”
But this development has not been met with enthusiasm by all members of the north Brisbane community.
bath site It was allocated for development by the government in FebruaryAs part of the newly announced Land Activation Programme, which aims to sell state-owned land to increase housing supply.
Bleijie said the parcel, which is less than 15 kilometers from Brisbane’s CBD, had attracted 157 interest in the four months since it was put up for sale, confirming the government was using the private sector to increase housing supply.
“We currently have 21 hectares of land available for sale under the New Land Activation Program… [and] “There is a high probability that we will unlock the 3000 hectares of state land identified,” he said.
In February, a small group of local residents stormed a government press conference and told reporters they were concerned the development would put pressure on strained infrastructure.
“The roads are already closed during rush hour. They’re just narrow streets,” Bath resident Keith Bitossi said.
“[Bleijie] I was just saying it was meant to fit in with the community. When you look around you see that everything is at low density. It’s talking about medium density and it’s all units.
“There are no units here. So how does that fit?”
Bleijie said residents will have the opportunity to provide feedback on the development, with all three developers behind the application consulting with the local community.
“[They] Will make development applications to EDQ [Economic Development Queensland]“This takes into account roads, traffic, transportation, public transport networks, buses, trains,” Bleijie said.
“It also collects sewage and rainwater [and] flood.”
Bathroom site was one of them four fields It was declared a Temporary Priority Development Area by the government in May, allowing local planning laws to be overridden to speed up development.
Bleijie said the government was preparing to finalize the PPDA declaration “very shortly”.
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