Plans to turn 50 hectares of rural land at Thagoona into an urban centre with housing types including five-storey apartment blocks were lodged with the Ipswich City Council more than two years ago.
In that time, the initial 18 development application documents outlining the ‘Thagoona Village’ proposal have increased to 309.
Almost 200 of those are submissions from residents generally protesting the scope of the proposal and raising concerns about inconsistencies between documents, flooding issues, loss of koala habitat, lack of detail and over-development.
And the original Thagoona Village proposal has been reshaped and reconfigured since the application was submitted in December 2023, due to a minor change application from the developer and amendments made following issues raised by the council planners and state government departments such as Transport and Main Roads and Environment.
To start at the beginning, the developer is Syz Development Land 2 Pty Ltd, one of the two companies which own the six rural properties making up the proposed Thagoona Village development.
Yu Sui is listed as the sole director and secretary of the two companies.
In brief, the developer hopes to gain preliminary approval for a master planned community across 50 of the 65 hectares.
The six rural properties which make up the total land area have frontage to Karrabin Rosewood Road, Thagoona Haigslea Road, Rosewood Thagoona Road, Lode Road and Stirling Road.
Five of the properties are on the south eastern side of the Rosewood Karrabin Road and the sixth is separated from the group by the road and another large allotment.
That allotment is currently the subject of a development application for a shopping centre and a state school and has been acquired by the Thagoona Village developer, Syz Development Land 2 Pty Ltd.
All the properties are mapped in the Ipswich City Council’s planning scheme as an urban development area and zoned future urban.
The proposed Thagoona Village master plan sets aside areas for residential housing as well as land for stormwater retention, parkland and open space.
The residential lot yield is estimated to be from 700 to 1,100 allotments. Those numbers will go beyond estimates if council approves the master plan and the developer begins applying for urban subdivisions.
Lot yield is defined by the land available and the housing density allowed by council under the preliminary approval in each of the proposed residential land blocks.
The housing yield will be much greater due to the proposed high rise apartments, multiple dwellings (town houses) and semi-detached housing in addition to the detached housing across the development.
Documents uploaded as part of the application indicate that the higher density housing (multi-storey apartments) will be on land nearest the Thagoona Railway Station with the density gradually reducing to the west across the sites.
Under the proposal, the developer also hopes to gain approval to remove 739 koala habitat trees while retaining similar trees growing in the green space blocks, particularly along the banks of O’Shea’s Gully.
In a Koala Plan of Management report, town planning agents for the developer have estimated the developer’s offset contribution for the tree clearing would be in the vicinity of $432,000.
“This is in addition to the site works and approximately 20ha of revegetation works and supplementary plantings within the 7.22ha of retained vegetation,” the agents noted.
Currently, the application has reached the decision making phase however the developer has asked for an extension of time to address the conditions the state government departments want set on any approval.
And the council is still awaiting information from the developer in relation to questions raised in July, last year.
