Sunshine Coast residents who have spent 14 years fighting property giant Stockland over its plans to build a housing estate on a floodplain are preparing to do battle once again.
The developer lodged a new master plan for the 104-hectare site on May 11.
It is the company's third attempt to build on the land, that sits between the existing Twin Waters estate and the Sunshine Motorway.
Stockland's first two development applications were knocked back by Sunshine Coast Council.
The company's senior economic development manager Matthew Byrne said the estate could provide much needed new land and housing supply for the region, with 446 residential lots proposed.
"As this is one of the last remaining large broadacre sites located in the heart of the Sunshine Coast there is great potential to deliver an exemplar sustainable, and classic Sunshine Coast lifestyle offer," Mr Byrne said.
There are several major changes compared with the previous proposals.
Medium-density dwellings have been removed.
The new plan includes a minimum lot size of 500m2 and an average lot size of at least 700m2.
On its website, the company states the development has been designed to meet stringent guidelines to ensure there is "no net worsening of flooding" as a consequence of the application.
The proposal includes a 17-hectare lake to "contain and slowly discharge large volumes of in-flowing stormwater during high rainfall".
Round three
Community groups including Save Twin Waters West, Development Watch and the Sunshine Coast Environment Council (SCEC) have opposed the estate on several grounds, including the flood threat, the potential impact on wildlife and wetlands and the housing density.
Save Twin Waters West president Kathryn Hyman said her group was "still on the fence" over the latest proposal and needed time to examine the material.
"Our engineering and scientific and planning resources are picking through the documents," Ms Hyman said.
"The devil will be in the detail as it always is."
She said the site, which is on the Maroochy River floodplain, could absorb between 1 and 1.5 million cubic metres of water in a flood event.
In 2018, Sunshine Coast Council amended the planning scheme to provide for a future residential community at the site.
"There's just a disconnect between what our prime minister is saying regarding development of floodplains, that it should be banned … and then we have a council that's pushing to develop a floodplain," Ms Hyman said.
"We haven't had a big flood here since 2011 … so there's a lot of meteorological amnesia as well."
Risk vs reward
Development Watch president Lynette Saxton said the growing need for housing did not change the group's concerns over the proposal.
"We've always believed that floodplains should be left to perform their natural function of storing floodwaters," Ms Saxton said.
"We don't believe that because people don't have anywhere to live, we should shove them on a floodplain and let them worry about it later when they don't have insurance."
SCEC spokeswoman Narelle McCarthy said she doubted the development would address the housing crisis.
"We're looking at a 10-year staging … and also the price point. I would imagine given the location and the type of development that is proposed [it] would be the upper bracket of the housing market," Ms McCarthy said.
She said there were also fears for the resident kangaroo population, along with the endangered water mouse that nested along the Maroochy River.
"There will still be a pipe going from this new lake into the Maroochy River so the disturbance to actually lay that infrastructure has the very high risk of impacting on threatened species," Ms McCarthy said.
Stockland said under the new master plan, more than half of the 100-hectare site would be retained as waterways, conservation and open space.
'Not calling it quits'
Wayne Ferguson, who lives in the existing Twin Waters estate, is worried about the potential flooding impacts.
"I'm not concerned about my house being directly affected, but it's the services that are underground and the fact that roadways, electricity, telephone and sewerage services could be directly impacted in a major flood event," he said.
"Everybody's relying on modelling … and there is room for error and you will only find those errors after the actual site has been developed, is that worth the risk?"
Mr Ferguson said he also had concerns about the "sheer volume" of water that would be pumped into the Twin Waters system each day.
"They're predicting that they would need to pump a cubic metre and a half per second for 12 hours each day to effect flushing of the new system," Mr Ferguson said.
"By my calculations that's somewhere between 17 and 25 Olympic swimming pools coming through this system."
He said there were already erosion issues caused by water flowing into the Twin Waters estate, which includes a network of canals.
Sunshine Coast Council is considering whether to approve the latest development application.
"If you believe something is wrong you've got to actually say, 'It's wrong and it needs to be corrected," Mr Ferguson said.
"You don't come this far then call it quits just because they put up another hurdle in front of you."
