Changes to Brisbane's cityplan for West End

There are four things that have changed in terms of the requirements that are being currently being put in place to speed up the development process, but at the same time create issues with developments being know about.

1. Blocks that are in Low Density areas are able to be subdivided and can be 300sqm.
2. Blocks that are in Medium Density areas are able to be subdivided and can be 180sqm.
3. The minumum requirement for the width of housing blocks will be 7.5m wide
4. The height of a building can be now 9.5metres
5. Public notification has been removed for some development types

 So what does this really mean? There seems to be a lot of emotive and reactionary speculation and comments being made that are unfounded.

1. Blocks in Low/Medium Density areas can only be divided when they sell or be decided to be developed, which 48 houses sold over the year in West End with a housing population of 2684 and an average street 28 houses one side (Say Spring Street) it would roughly take six months of sales only occurring in one street. All of these sales would have to have to also be sub devided.
2. Not all street frontages would meet the minimum requirement of 7.5 meters
3. The heights are a reaction to the flooding that had recently occurred but to also the change design of housing that better suits the climate
4. My sore point is trying to find more information about the proposed removal of development types, this would be my only bugbear despite people not knowing what the signage actually means, or even care about this

Change is inevitable.  It is the path in how we manage this change without being irrational is my concern about these changes. These changes are about meeting pressures of development and population growth that are seen in the land stock that is currently available. But there has been a 44% drop in the migration of people from Southern States into Queensland from 2009 to 2011.

So if there has been a slowing down of the population, why is there a need to change the built form of Brisbane as a whole? Could it be a case of increasing paid land rates towards council? If every house in West End was to be subdivided let alone Brisbane, the rate payer population would nearly double.

From having a population of around 2.2 million, we would have 4 million? Could Brisbane support such numbers? It's easy to put in paper the changes towards development and their controls, but are we opening a can or worms when it comes to the relaxation of rules and regulations that support and not just slow down development, but make development sensitive and long term not just for the developer but also for the community at large.


http://www.homepriceguide.com.au/research/default.aspx?locationtype=suburb&state=qld&suburbid=39194

http://localstats.qpzm.com.au/stats/qld/brisbane/southern-suburbs/west-end

http://www.lgaq.asn.au/c/document_library/get_file?uuid=c15ddbf5-8002-4e14-be4b-492daabdd51a&groupId=10136