Population plan for coast
Fri 07 April 2006
Megan Genrich, Journalism
Environmental protection and planning is a big issue for the city’s three shire councils, with close to half a million people forecast to reside on the Sunshine Coast by 2026.
The Queensland Government Department of State Development, Trade and Innovation said that about 482,780 people will be living on the Coast in 20 year’s time, with an average rate of 9500 each year settling in the area.
With an average annual growth of 3.3 per cent on the Sunshine Coast, this far outweighs the Queensland average of 1.9 per cent.
Caloundra City Council currently has over 82,000 residents, with an anticipated growth rate of 3 per cent each year until 2016.
In 2004 council developed the Caloundra City Plan to manage the shire’s growth and protect its environment.
Noosa is the only shire to implement a ‘population cap’ which stands at 61,000.
Noosa Councillor Ray Kelly said they had recently implemented a new plan passed by the State Government called the Integrated Planning Act which focuses on sustainable development measures for the area.
“In reference to that (the IPA) we also worked out the population densities that Noosa could sustain without affecting the environment, lifestyle, water supply and sewerage disposal,” he said.
“We predicted a 3 per cent growth up until 2016, when our planning scheme does not permit any more development,” he said.
Cr Kelly said current Coast residents living south of Noosa should be concerned their population is expanding to the point where quality of life is jeopardised.
Maroochy Shire Councillor Steve Dickson said it is easy to bemoan the fact that the region is becoming crowded and with more traffic but that goes hand-in-hand with living in a developing city.
“People need to realise we live in an area of natural growth,” he said.
Maroochy Shire Councillor Ted Hungerford said the Maroochy region is growing at a rate of 3.9 per cent each year, with the current population at 136,000 and set to reach 260,000 by 2026.
“There’s currently only enough water sources until 2016, so we need to find a solution for that,” he said.
The South East Queensland Regional Plan was launched in June 2005 and requires all three councils to prepare a Local Growth Management Strategy to be submitted by June 30, 2007.
It must show how the plan policies will be implemented at a local level for each shire.
Sunshine Coast Environment Council Manager Ian Christesen said areas not in the three council’s Urban Footprint plans, which protects from development, should be included to consider what areas would bear the greatest impact of development and whether it should be restricted.
Mr Christesen said a number of environmentally damaging things would happen if adequate council measures were not put in place.
“It (the Sunshine Coast) will lose its biodiversity, become another coastal urban sprawl and lose its longer term sustainable tourism image,” he said.
He likened it to killing the goose that laid the golden egg.
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