DHA DEVELOPMENT

I ENCOURAGE Peter Sheridan (TC, 30/10) to visit the Mt Lofty DHA housing site in Martini St.

Does he really think he can advocate the retention basin development in Ballin and Garnet Lehmann Parks as a model for the Mt Lofty site?

From Martini St, he will be looking out over the last large greenfield site on the edge of the escarpment. It has a magnificent view over the Lockyer Valley.

It is completely different in several important ways from Ballin/Lehmann. Ballin/Lehmann remains open public space, not another 344-house suburb.

The Ballin/Lehmann development has not caused traffic chaos in the surrounding residential areas.

The Toowoomba Regional Council estimates that there will be an extra 3400-4000 car movements in and out of the Mt Lofty development every day.

Did the Ballin development dislodge a koala colony or interfere with satin bower birds and other wildlife in a natural forest adjoining thousands of hectares of pristine old growth forest?

Was Ballin used as a military weapons range for more than 100 years which caused major soil contamination?

The details of the DHA project show they have finally admitted that only 10-20 per cent of their houses will be occupied by military families. The rest of the houses and land are for commercial development to make money for the federal government.

The bottom line is that they could build 30-60 houses and a magnificent public park without destroying thousands of trees. That would be a great gift to the garden city.

STEPHEN JONES, Toowoomba