Homes for people – and koala mates
Land offered for wildlife on condition of city plan change
A LONGTIME Gold Coast developer wants to donate 320ha of land for koala conservation, but there’s a catch.
Eliezer Kornhauser, whose family has owned the 407ha Greenridge site made up of 12 blocks at Pimpama since the early 1980s, is seeking a change to the city plan so he can build 1200 houses on about 80ha of it.
Through his company BCI Group, Melbournebased Mr Kornhauser aims to create a masterplanned community using design principles that would have a lower impact on the vulnerable marsupials.
If the change is allowed, the group will regenerate the remaining land, bounded by Kerkin Road North and Wallaby Way, and gift it to the Gold Coast City Council on condition it remains a koala conservation area in perpetuity.
The group has put several proposals to develop the land, which is zoned rural with a conservation overlay, before the council in the past but has been unsuccessful.
Area councillor and planning chair Cameron Caldwell said the council would consider the latest proposal on its merits.
“The land is outside the urban footprint and has recently been considered in the formation of the Southeast Queensland Regional Plan,” he said.
“Council is undertaking studies in the Coomera area of a section that could be included as future koala habitat reserve.”
The East Coomera Koala Population Study, commissioned by the council last year, found the population of the species in the area remained viable but overcrowded due to shrinking habitat. It said there was an urgent need to create new conservation areas before the situation worsened.
Karina Waterman, of the Coomera Conservation Group, said more information was needed on the Pimpama proposal.
“The State Government’s Koala Expert Panel is due to report anytime now. I think it would be sensible to wait for that report to come out.”
BCI Group project manager Steve Knudsen said the group had looked at the Koala Beach development in the Tweed and would use methods such as koala-friendly fencing, roads designed to limit traffic speed and crossings under or over the roads.
Mr Knudsen said although the typical lots would be 400-500sq m, blocks on the fringe of the development could be up to 2000sq m to create a transition area.
Mr Kornhauser said he hoped the project would be an example of harmony between koalas and development.
The group said the project would generate more than $500 million in construction investment over the life of the project and create 150 full-time jobs.