QLD: State Opposition labels two-year community consultation for aged care development on state-owned land a “sham”

As we reported here, Economic Development Queensland (EDQ) wants to redevelop the 19.28ha site of the former Oxley Secondary College, 10km southwest of the Brisbane CBD, into a high-rise aged care facility plus 74 residential home sites, sports fields, green spaces and a relocated child care centre. But LNP Shadow Minister for State Development, Manufacturing, Infrastructure and Planning, Andrew Powell has moved a disallowance motion against the declaration of the land as a Priority Development Area (PDA), saying the outcome was a “foregone conclusion”. “Local residents do not want six-storey development in their suburb and their views have been ignored,” he said. A report from the community panel created in 2016 to advise the Government found there was a widespread preference for parks and community and green space on the land. The local Labor MP Jess Pugh has dismissed the idea that the panel was stacked or the community consultation was inadequate however. “This PDA allows for vast amounts of open space and if you compare those 200 townhouses with the 74 homesites over 19ha in this PDA, this is an excellent outcome for Oxley,” she said.