Developers in land buy
Housing planned for site
A huge parcel of land in a growing part of the Toowoomba region has sold to new developers, 18 months after the sellers fought with council over the size of lots in the attached subdivision.
A southeast Queensland company has snapped up the 32ha property off Cawdor Rd in Highfields following a campaign through Ray White Special Projects Queensland.
The land, which is less than 12km from the Toowoomba CBD, comes with a 93-lot park residential subdivision attached that was approved in August last year.
This was actually a revised plan by previous developer Bill Lambert, who had originally proposed more than 250 lots on the parcel before pulling it.
While he couldn’t reveal many details of the sale, RWSP director Tony Williams said the land was wellsuited for new housing.
“(The new owners) love the property, it’s a beautiful parcel of land and would be fantastic as a park residential subdivision,” he said.
“I look forward to seeing it developed into new housing.”
Mr Lambert withdrew his original subdivision after failing to secure a pre-lodgement meeting with the council’s planning department.
While the land had been zoned as park residential, the applicant made the case that not only could the community support more lots but it would lead to the creation of new green space.
“The developer has decided, after investigating several sewer strategies, that while what is contemplated certainly would be viable and achievable under the plan that it would require council and community support to achieve it,” Mr Lambert’s real estate agent Julian Dickson said.
“It’s a significant 32ha site centrally located in Highfields and once it’s rural residential the opportunity for it to be anything else is limited.”
In response, councillor Bill Cahill called the comments “disappointing” and pointed out the TRC had held initial discussions with consultants.