June 14, 2014
A solution to the controversial Memerambi housing estate may be close.
The South Burnett Regional Council will write to affected property owners offering to make the estate a “benefitted area”, Mayor Wayne Kratzmann said on Friday.
If the owners agree, the Council would borrow funds from Queensland Treasury to build the sealed roads and drainage works, and connect underground power needed to make the estate habitable.
The Memerambi owners would repay the loan costs, interest and redemption fees over a set period on top of their normal rates.
“We have to wait and see what the owners say,” Mayor Kratzmann said.
But he hoped they would agree to the proposal so work on “normalising” the estate could start quickly.
“Council would really like to see Memerambi Estate fixed,” the Mayor said.
“So we hope to hear back from the owners soon.”
* * *
The Memerambi Estate has been an eyesore ever since August 2013 when the estate’s developer Summit View Meritor Pty Ltd was placed in liquidation.
Council originally approved development of the estate in January 2011 on an historical sub-division laid out in 1907.
The approval was given subject to conditions that apply to normal sub-divisions, including the completion of infrastructure works prior to the commencement of building work.
However in April 2011, this requirement was removed after Summit View Meritor, via a consultant, requested a “negotiated decision”.
Summit View Meritor then built houses on the estate in advance of fundamental infrastructure such as roads, water and sewerage.
Many of the houses were only completed to basic lock-up stage, and lacked proper infrastructure connections to make them habitable.
After Summit View Meritor was placed into receivership, the Council then found itself embroiled in a legal action launched by 18 of the property owners against the developers in which it was joined as a third respondent.
This held up any moves towards fixing the problem until the case was resolved in Council’s favour in February this year.
At the time, the Mayor said he genuinely sympathised with the property owners’ predicament, but was determined South Burnett ratepayers would not be out of pocket because of the problem.
Apart from declaring the estate a benefitted area, the only other options open to property owners were to pay contractors to build the infrastructure themselves; or watch the estate continue to deteriorate.
In May this year, the Council adopted a Temporary Local Planning Instrument (TLPI) which will require future owners of historic sub-divisions to build all infrastructure before any dwelling can be erected.
The TLPI will remain in force for a year, by which time the Council hope to introduce a new, Shire-wide Planning Scheme containing similar provisions to prevent any similar situation in future.
[UPDATED with correction. An earlier version of this report stated the letters had been sent]
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