State Member for Kawana Jarrod Bleijie addresses last night's meeting. OVER 1600 submissions, mostly from residents in the Sippy Downs community and the word that was continually uttered at the local association’s meeting last night was, ‘disappointing’.
That was the response to Council’s Structure Plan for the new Palmview development which will now see up to 17,712 residents neighbour the existing Sippy Downs community.
Member for Kawana Jarrod Bleijie was visibly angry at the lack of support from Council to the local community’s concerns over the adjacent Greenfield development site.
“Despite all of the rhetoric about our place, our future, the countless community submissions, parliamentary petitions, deputations to Ministers and Councillors, it all seems to have been just a waste of time,” Mr Bleijie said.
“Council’s planning portfolio spokesman Russell Green, while patting himself on the back over the approval of the Palmview development, says it showed the Government that Council could also handle the massive Caloundra South site.
“It shows we are able to do this, we have the skill sets, we have the political will.........we believe we can do it with the Caloundra South site too.....let the Council and the community chart its own destiny,” he said.
“The point is that the reverse is true - the Council is not allowing the community to chart its own destiny,” Mr Bleijie said.
“The north-south Greenlink route which cuts the master planned community of Sippy Downs in half, access to the Bruce Highway through a service road, the sequencing of the development and the amount of access points has been the major concerns of Sippy Downs residents.
“The main fight has been to ensure that this new development will not adversely impact on Sippy Downs.
When Mr Bleijie questioned Council last night at the public meeting about the route of the east west Greenlink, Council could not give a definitive answer as to where it would be located, what environmental impact have been considered, let alone the cost and who was going to pay for it.
“This highlights the sense that people should be concerned when Council are submitting Structure Plans to Ministers for rubber stamping, when so many issues remain unanswered and not costed,” Mr Bleijie said.
“Claymore Road, the major initial access point is not even being duplicated to a four lane road.
“The east-west Greenlink is just pie in the sky planning, it will cost a lot more than Council’s anticipated $100 million and nobody wants to pay for it.
“There are also huge environmental concerns to consider in the actual location of this so called ‘Green’-link.
“The proposed southern access to Caloundra Road crosses the Mooloolah River and straight through a 50 year sand mining project – with the road acting as one of the major haulage routes to cart sand from the mine.
“The other access point is the south-west road directs the traffic straight to Meridan - which has its own traffic problems at the moment.
“In a perfect world, it would be nice to think that the majority of the residents in Palmview are going to throw away there car keys and use buses, but the reality is that in the short term this isn’t going to happen.
“This development was a test for the current Council and the majority of the Councillors failed the local interest test in a big way,” Mr Bleijie said.
Only two Councillors voted against the proposal – Cr Christian Dickson and Cr Ted Hungerford.
“I haven’t given up hope yet and nor should the community,” Mr Bleijie said.
“Last week I informally spoke with the Minister, Stirling Hinchliffe and there are still opportunities where the state can intervene in the second state interest check.
“I will continue to pursue these opportunities and work through the options with the local community association.
“It begs the question that if Council can’t get a 16,000 population development at Palmview right, then how will it cope with the planning for a 50,000 population development at Caloundra South.
“Why does Council bother with community consultation when clearly retaining the north south Greenlink is against the majority of submissions,” Mr Bleijie said.
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