Anything but Reducing Immigration By James Reed
I read an article at Their ABC about the serious challenges the Tweed Mayor is facing. The Tweed Shire, just below the Queensland border has almost 100, 000 people, but by 2041 could add another 30,000 people. Housing and even supplying enough water are big problems. The Tweed Shire Council will not be able to meet water demand after around 2028. To deal with this, they hope to raise the capacity of the Clarrie Hall Dam by raising its walls by 8.5 metres. And so, the band aid proposals go on, which is all that they can do.
It all assumes that the population increase will only be by 30,000, but with Australia's insane immigration intake, who knows? As well the ABC article never mentions immigration. Surely the best solution is to limit the number of people flooding into the country, which is an issue of government policy. But that would be rational, and rationality and Big Gov do not mix!
"The Tweed Shire, located just south of the Queensland border, is already home to almost 100,000 people, but by 2041 that number could grow by another 30,000.
The local council has to work out where to house the new arrivals, and how to ensure they have enough water.
"There's an incredible amount for council to try to juggle when we plan for growth like this," Cr Cherry says.
"We have to plan for the water consumption and usage of that growing population, we have to plan for the sewerage capacity and waste capacity … [and whether new houses are in] an area we can service or how much it would cost to get services there."
Water is no small challengeTime is ticking as the council seeks a way to supply its newcomers with adequate water.
Residents have been told the Tweed Shire Council will not be able to meet community demand after about 2028.
In response, the council is hoping to double the capacity of its main water supply, the Clarrie Hall Dam, by raising its walls by 8.5 metres.
It's a decade-long project — concept design started in 2016 — but even now, some residents would prefer to see a second dam to be built at nearby Byrrill Creek.
In the riverside town of Uki, less than five kilometres downstream of Clarrie Hall Dam, resident Esma Thompson has serious concerns.
"I'm so far against it, it's unbelievable. I'm really concerned about the dam, the integrity of it as its built now, and also if they're going to raise it," she says.
"If it is raised and something happens, what happens to Uki? Does it exist after that?"
But if the project does not go ahead — and it is yet to be approved by the NSW government — there will be serious questions about how to ensure water supply for the residents already living in the area.
The dam was built in the early 80s, back when the population was 40,000.
Council staff say now, without rain, it holds enough water to last just one year.
Housing the massesThe council has also released a paper with 83 different options to increase housing and land availability, including urban development at Tweed Heads and more subdivisions on the coastal strip.
Strategic planning coordinator Iain Lonsdale says there is a particular focus on increasing housing density in existing residential areas, although new or contentious sites across the shire are being considered as well.
"Some who have been here a long time might think here's the council again re-agitating and revisiting the same sites that perhaps we've said no to in the past, but the reality is the issues change," he says.
"Ten years ago, we weren't talking about a housing crisis and we weren't talking about our houses being well above the affordability level. Today we are."
Zombies an unwelcome development
One of the handbrakes on residential housing has been so-called 'zombie developments', where new subdivisions are approved but don't go ahead. Instead, developers reap the rewards of increased land values decades later.
Mr Lonsdale says solving the problem would require the state government to change planning rules.
"Council really has its hand tied because when you look at those things, there's usually an element of compensation that's put on the table," he says.
"[But] councils are spending taxpayers money, residents money, and we're not in a position to buy back DAs, that's the reality of it."
Instead, he hopes the options paper will entice developers to breathe new life into some of the region's zombies.
"We're looking at the possibility of re-imagining what the site could provide that may be beneficial to the owner, and therefore they may lodge a new DA for a contemporary development and the old DA will fall to the wayside."
Cr Cherry says many regions face similar challenges.
"People often only get alerted to a change … when it starts to be constructed right next door to them," she says.
"Unfortunately, that is just way too late to be able to make a change, so the time to have an input into what you think should be built next door to your place is now."
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