Councillors scale back development

THREE major Tweed developments, which were to provide nearly 12,000 homes, face an uncertain future after Tweed Shire councillors decided to tell the State Government the projects should be scaled back to less than half their planned size.

The council intends to tell the NSW Department of Planning it does not have the money to provide planned roads to service the originally proposed population.

Councillors blame the government for capping the amount of development fees they can charge the developers at $20,000 for each new block of land. They said Cobaki Lakes west of the Gold Coast Airport should be scaled back from 5300 to 3007 house lots, Kings Forest south of Kingscliff from 4500 to 1267 lots and The Rise at Bilambil from 1604 to 526 lots.

Mayor Warren Polglase said it had become clear that the government’s limits on fees had “an enormous impact in Tweed Shire”.

The council’s director of engineering and operations Patrick Knight said the government had attempted to increase the supply of housing land by reducing costs but had not realised that if infrastructure such as roads was not funded, the development would not go ahead.

“The chooks have come home to roost for the state government,” Councillor Dot Holdom added.