Residents turn keys at Avenues

THE Avenues of Highfields has welcomed its first four residents in the city’s first master planned housing community in the growing area.

Two of the new residents’ households are first-home buyers and marks a milestone for the development.

Avenues of Highfields project director Stephen Bowers said the residents collected the keys and moved in over the past three weeks as development progresses on the estate’s new display homes due by October.

It follows the completion of a central park complete with $85,000 in playground equipment open for new families, Mr Bowers said at Toowoomba and Surat Basin Enterprise’s June Enterprise Evening on Thursday.

“We’re trying to do things differently at the Avenues,” he said.

“The idea is that today, instead of building soulless subdivisions, I’m trying to create a community.”

Mr Bowers said almost 20 homes had been built since plans were registered and approved in January this year.

Development is progressing on a co-ordinated display village which will be the first for the Toowoomba region in several years, he said.

The homes and display village make up stage one of the development which includes 104 lots.

A total of 545 lots will be developed in the next four years.

The estate will also include $700,000 worth of concrete footpaths on each side of the roads which will be lined with deciduous and ever green trees grown at Ravensbourne.

Each home will also use Toowoomba labour.

“We’re only using Toowoomba builders,” he said.

“It’s part of our philosophy when developing a locality the money should go back into the community, rather than it heading off down to Brisbane to whatever,” he said.