For the third time in recent months, Brisbane’s LNP Lord Mayor and Council have voted against an amendment from the Labor Opposition to include affordable housing targets in updated precinct plans.
At Tuesday’s Council meeting, Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner moved to formally change the zoning of Fortitude Valley, the first update to the Precinct Plan since 2010. The current zoning limits range from 8 to 30 stories, and the changes will allow more parts of the Fortitude Valley Precinct to be built higher.
The Brisbane Labor Opposition supported the initiative, but raised concerns that increasing height limits would not necessarily make housing more affordable, nor would it spur Council into delivering better infrastructure and services given the LNP’s track record for the Valley over the past two decades.
That prompted them to move an amendment to include aspirational affordable housing targets to be included in the updated precinct plan.
Brisbane Labor had also tried this previously in precinct plan updates for Mount Gravatt, Indooroopilly, Nundah and Carindale.
Opposition Leader Jared Cassidy raised that the new towers that have emerged over the last 15 years have not facilitated any affordable housing.
“New towers which are either office space, such as the one beside the Jubilee on St. Pauls Terrace, or a mix of tourist and luxury accommodation from the Peppers Resort on the corner of St. Pauls Terrace and Brunswick St.”
“Seriously, $680 a week for a one-bedroom apartment is not affordable.”
Cassidy also cited the case of the Utopia building on Wickham Street where hundreds of renters were denied a lease renewal after Council granted building management to list their apartments as short-stay accommodation.
“A despicable decision at any time, let alone during an unfolding housing crisis.”
Deputy Leader Lucy Collier also backed in the move, delivering an impassioned speech in the chamber.
“The reality is that there are families being rejected, making hundreds and hundreds of rental applications, and getting knocked back, and being forced to live in their cars.
“This is the Brisbane that the LNP have created.”
The Lord Mayor however, used his majority on Council to vote down the amendment, claiming that aspirational targets for affordable housing were too restrictive for private developers, despite multiple blocks of land within the precinct are already land banked, sitting vacant for years.
