THE largest development Redland City has ever seen will be put to council for approval on Wednesday.
The 4000-dwelling Shoreline project, if approved, will result in a new residential suburb built on farm land and the foreshore south of Redland Bay.
In a 110-page report, Redland City Council officers have recommended issuing a preliminary approval with more than 31 conditions.
The conditions include surrounding the estate with a three-metre-high noise barrier and a 3km dual-lane carriageway, both stipulated by the State Assessment Referral Agency.
The state issued its list of obligatory conditions three days after it took office in February. It said approval of the project was solely a council matter.
Debate will surround the council zoning of the land, currently rural non-urban, but recommended by the state as being changed to "future urban" in the new town plan.
Provision of roads, sewers, transport and other infrastructure including schools, will also be discussed. Road studies have projected traffic increases of more than 116 per cent on some roads if the project proceeds.
Mayor Karen Williams said the developer promised to sign a deal with council for $100million for infrastructure and also to provide sewerage for the area.
"This has got to be a decision that is in the benefit of the community and that's what we will be weighing up - the level of infrastructure contribution," Cr williams said.
"I'm led to believe there's about $100million all up that we wouldn't normally get from any other standard development in the Urban Footprint.
"This allows us to take a lot more money from the developer."
Under state infrastructure charges legislation, the developer of a 4000-dwelling estate of three bedroom homes would typically pay $28,000 per house or $112million.
Officers gave councillors seven options to consider at Wednesday's meeting ranging from absolving itself from any decision, to partly approving, to approving with conditions, to refusing.
They said the application was assessed against the Redlands Planning Scheme and relevant state plans and complied with both, subject to conditions.
Under the South East Queensland Koala Conservation State Planning Regulatory Provision, the land is zoned “investigation” for rural residential and prohibits most urban activity.
The zoning also restricts development, including reconfiguration, until the land is ready for possible future urban purposes, which is what the state government decided in August when it wrote to council and told it to remove any reference to rural residential zoning from the city plan.
The state also required southern Redland Bay and Thornlands to be designated for future urban growth investigation.
Council is legally obliged to make a decision by November 20 and took the maximum time available to consider the application.
Division 2 councillor Craig Ogilvie said he thought the decision was rushed.
“It's all happening in a rush. Councillors won't have time to meet together and have an opportunity to workshop the reports with officers,” he said.
“A major development with far-reaching impacts and lots of detail. There is a real hurry to get it to this meeting.”
Redland chief executive Bill Lyon said the item would be vigorously debated and said all information would be available for councillors and the public.
"I know the public is very interested in this item and so I will be taking the unusual step of asking the mayor to suspend standing orders so it can be debated openly and without time constraints that exist under the standing orders," he said.
"I do caution councillors, however, that while I expect the debate to be passionate, I expect it to remain on topic and respectful of each other, the public and council officers."
He said delaying it would mean council would fail to meet its statutory obligations for determining a properly made application.
Councillors had seven meetings to discuss the application in the past 18 months.
Shoreline chief executive Chris Barnes said the developer had consulted the Redlands community and worked over the past two years with council.
“Never before has private capital been used at such a scale to deliver infrastructure,” he said.
“Should council approve the application, over $100million will be spent on road upgrades external to the Shoreline site with a further $300m invested in infrastructure for the southern Redlands.
"Some of those items being a new district level sports fields and over 2km of people’s foreshore park."
