Ferny Grove-Upper Kedron Draft Neighbourhood Plan Strategy
Brisbane City Council has prepared a draft strategy to guide the future of the Ferny Grove-Upper Kedron area.
To find out more or have your say visit www.brisbane.qld.gov.au and search for ‘Ferny Grove-Upper Kedron Neighbourhood Plan’ or call (07) 3403 8888.
CONTENTS
Introduction
Background
Vision for the area
Living villages
Getting around and being connected
Bushland lifestyles
Implementation plan
Next steps
INTRODUCTION
About the draft strategy
Brisbane City Council is updating the neighbourhood plan for the suburbs of Ferny Grove and Upper Kedron following a direction by the Queensland Government to facilitate development in Upper Kedron. Drafting a strategy to guide the plan is an important step in this process.
The existing neighbourhood plan was adopted in 2007. In 2015, following a review of a development application for 390 Levitt Road, Upper Kedron, the Queensland Government directed Council to work with the community to update the neighbourhood plan. Determining how land south of Cedar Creek should be used is the major focus of this update.
Neighbourhood plans help guide future development, protecting aspects of the area that locals love and coordinating land use and infrastructure over a 10-year period. They ultimately become part of Brisbane City Plan 2014 (City Plan), which sets out the potential uses for each and every block in the city and the rules for how development can occur.
This strategy has been drafted so community members can consider the future of the entire Ferny Grove and Upper Kedron area together.
Now is the time to have your say about the future of your neighbourhood. Tell us what you think of the draft strategy and the proposals to protect local character while allowing for future development. The draft strategy and community feedback will guide Council’s update of the existing Ferny Grove-Upper Kedron Neighbourhood Plan in late 2016 for the area south of Cedar Creek.
Once updated to incorporate Cedar Creek South, the draft neighbourhood plan will be sent to the Queensland Government for review. Following this review, you will have the opportunity to provide additional feedback to Council before it becomes a legal document guiding future development over the next 10 years and beyond in the Ferny Grove-Upper Kedron area.
Have your say
Come along to a Talk to a Planner session to speak one-on-one with a Council officer, ask specific questions or get more detail on how to have your say.
You can also:
· call the neighbourhood planning team on (07) 3403 8888
· email us at
· provide your comments through our online form by visiting www.brisbane.qld.gov.au (search for ‘Ferny Grove-Upper Kedron Neighbourhood Plan’)
· post or email your own written submission.
Submissions on the draft Ferny Grove-Upper Kedron Neighbourhood Plan Strategy close on Monday 7 November 2016.
Come and talk with us
· Ferny Grove Shopping Village, 10.30am-1pm Wednesday 26 October 2016
· Ferny Grove Shopping Village, 5-7pm Thursday 27 October 2016
BACKGROUND
About Ferny Grove-Upper Kedron
Located on the outskirts of Brisbane City, Ferny Grove and Upper Kedron are residential suburbs much loved for their bushland setting, quiet family streets, and relaxed, outdoor lifestyle.
The area has great community facilities including wo primary schools and a high school, sporting fields and 18 parks, a bowling club, public bus and train services, convenience shops and a tavern. It’s a short drive to shopping centres at Mitchelton and Keperra, and the CBD is a half-hour train trip from Ferny Grove Station.
Almost 10,000 people live in the study area, half of whom are under 14 years or over 65 years of age. More than 90% of houses in the area are stand-alone houses. With mostly stand-alone houses and only some townhouses choices are limited, so long-term residents may need to move away from Ferny Grove and Upper Kedron if their circumstances change.
The area supports employment for around 400 people who work locally at schools, shops and other small businesses.
The natural environment
Forested hills in and around the area offer a scenic backdrop to homes. Environmental
reserves and bushland corridors border the suburbs on three sides and are considered
important to the whole region. These are Keperra Bushland, Samford Conservation Park and a portion of the D’Aguilar National Park (formerly known as Brisbane Forest Park).
Locals enjoy bushwalking through eucalypt forests and the relics of old gold mines at
nearby Bellbird Grove. The Walkabout Creek Discovery Centre is also close by, hosting the heritage-listed Enoggera Reservoir dam and water playground. The national park is popular for camping, horse riding, mountain biking and wildlife spotting. Many streams flow through the area and feed into Kedron and Cedar creeks, which are tributaries of Kedron Brook, one of the city’s major creeks. Kedron Brook’s headwaters, located in the national park in Ferny Grove, are critical to the health of the entire waterway.
Residents love the natural aspects of the area and understand the inherent risks of living close to this natural setting.
History
Aboriginal people who spoke the Yaggera language once camped in the area along creeks in the fern-filled gullies. Red cedar and pine drew the first Europeans in the 1840s and timber-getters soon cleared the land for farming. John Delaney Bergin became the first major landowner in 1865 and the first school opened a decade later as dairy farms and small-crop farms growing grapes, oranges and vegetables flourished. Ferny Grove-Upper Kedron remained a farming community and industrial area, with a large clay pit and tile factory operating south of the train station, until the 1970s and 1980s when the suburbs boomed.
A growing Brisbane
We all know Brisbane is a great place to live. As Queensland’s major economic, services and employment activity centre, the city will continue to grow. Over the next decade, we will need more homes as people relocate here and local residents move through different stages in life.
The Queensland Government’s South East Queensland Regional Plan 2009-2031 broadly sets out where new development can and cannot go in the region through an ‘urban footprint’, which responds to anticipated residential growth. Based on this plan, by 2031 Brisbane will need to cater for an additional 156,000 more homes than we had in 2006, 138,000 dwellings as ‘infill’ development and 18,000 houses in ‘greenfield’ sites.
Brisbane City Plan 2014 anticipates that infill dwellings will be located in established suburbs, around major shopping centres, along railway lines and busways. New houses in greenfield areas will focus on undeveloped sites suitable for housing such as Rochedale, Lower Oxley Creek and Upper Kedron.
The existing neighbourhood plan has been guiding the development of new homes in Ferny Grove and Upper Kedron since 2007. Council will use the latest flooding, bushfire and infrastructure information to update areas of the plan and assess the suitability of new sites for housing.
Future development must be carefully managed so it’s well designed, has good supporting infrastructure, fits in with nearby neighbourhoods and respects the ecological value of green spaces and waterways. Council will carefully assess potential locations and types of new housing to protect the natural environment for future generations. The neighbourhood plan will ensure the area has a wide range of housing options so
people can stay in their community throughout their lives. It will also seek ways to improve access to active travel, public transport and road networks, and create more spaces for recreation and play.
Homes for older residents
Over the next 10-20 years, older residents may be looking to downsize from a large family home to something more manageable. Most people tend to find a pocket of Brisbane they like and try to stay local when their housing needs change, so ideally neighbourhoods should have homes that vary in size, style and price. We are now having longer retirements with greater independence than previous generations and most older residents want housing that allows them to ‘age in place’.
A changing Ferny Grove-Upper Kedron
Ferny Grove and Upper Kedron have developed over the last 20 to 30 years through many small-medium scale greenfield subdivisions. Most homes in the area suit families and large households, and there are few units, townhouses or other types of housing suited to smaller households such as singles, older people or young families.
Since 2007, the existing Ferny Grove-Upper Kedron Neighbourhood Plan has guided residential development along Hogarth and Upper Kedron roads and focused commercial activities into existing centres. More parks and recreation spaces have been delivered,
such as along Parksedge Street, and existing parks such as Upper Kedron Recreation Reserve have been improved.
The timeline below illustrates various changes that have occurred in Ferny Grove and Upper Kedron over the years. While some local neighbourhoods have been around since the 1970s, many are relatively new. Over the last five years, around 780 new homes have been built in communities such as The Palisades, Cedar Vue, Jarrah Estate and Parks Edge Estate. These estates are close to completion.
Ferny Grove-Upper Kedron timeline
1960s-1970s
• Ferny Grove tile factory closes and residential subdivision starts
• New schools established, rail line to Ferny Grove electrified
• Farms in Upper Kedron reduce rural production, grazing paddocks retained
1980s-1990s
• Ferny Grove largely settled, few large lots remaining, shopping centre developed, schools expanded
• First subdivisions in Upper Kedron commenced
2000s
• South East Queensland Regional Plan – urban footprint located midway between Cedar Creek and Mt Nebo Road (2006)
• Ferny Grove Upper Kedron Neighbourhood Plan adopted (2007)
• South East Queensland Regional Plan – urban footprint extended to Mt Nebo Road (2009)
2014-today
• Infrastructure Agreement to transfer 90ha of land from Cedar Woods to Council for environmental purposes out of total area of 227ha (2014)
• Council approved Cedar Woods development application for a development permit for Stages 1 and 2 and preliminary approval over the site (2014)
• Ministerial call-in development decision to approve Stage 1 and preliminary approval over existing Emerging Community zone land
• Ministerial direction to review the Ferny Grove-Upper Kedron Neighbourhood Plan (2015)
COMMUNITY INPUT SO FAR
In November 2015, Council distributed a newsletter to local homes and businesses to let
people know that a neighbourhood plan had started for the area, what the neighbourhood planning process covered and how people could be involved.
An online survey was available between November 2015 and March 2016. About half
of responses were from residents of the area. More than half of respondents had lived in the plan area for more than ten years. More than three‑quarters of local respondents live in a standalone house on a 600m2 block.
The top five issues as voted by survey respondents were as follows.
1. District roads
2. The environment
3. Community spaces and parks
4. Local roads
5. Buses
In April 2016, Council distributed a second newsletter calling for nominations from residents and business owners for a Community Planning Team (CPT). CPT members then shared their insights and valuable knowledge with us through a series of four workshops. For those who did not nominate for the CPT, Council held information kiosks at the Ferny Grove Shopping Village in April to talk with locals about the planning process and their ideas for the area.
Community engagement activities snapshot
Summary of community insights and ideas
Online survey
• We love: natural green spaces, bushland character, proximity to parks, quiet and peaceful area, space for kids to play.
• Opportunities to improve: getting in and out of our suburb, lot sizes allowed in the area, local road connections, bus services, bike paths, footpaths.
Community Planning Team
The CPT worked with Council over four months to provide invaluable local knowledge about challenges and opportunities for the area. These insights helped Council understand what the community considers important and wants for the future. A summary of this feedback is provided below.
Living villages
• The natural setting is highly valued and new residential lots should respect the area’s bushland character.
• Higher density development should be provided at the station, not in the outer areas.
• Better shopping facilities are needed.
• More vibrant and creative spaces would improve options for work-sharing, dining
and entertainment.
• Smaller lot sizes could be considered to assist with housing affordability, for all ages and demographics.
Bushland lifestyle
• Part of the area’s attraction is its proximity to natural habitat for wildlife.
• Wildlife is often seen along the waterway and bushland corridors.
• Being close to bushland and having opportunities for bushwalking is important.
• Forested ridges are important visual features.
Getting around
• Getting around the suburb is difficult, whether by car, foot, bike or public transport.
• The bus loop does not go far enough and service times in the evening are too limited and do not connect with train times.
• More pedestrian crossings are needed at schools and school traffic at peak hours is heavy.
• People drive to the train station and can’t find parking.
• New road connections are required to get out of the local area.
VISION FOR THE AREA
Council has drafted a vision to help imagine what the Ferny Grove-Upper Kedron area
could be like in 10 years. This vision is based on input received from the community and
will become an important element of the neighbourhood plan, guiding future planning
and development in the area.
Ferny Grove-Upper Kedron is a community-spirited village surrounded by natural bushland. Locals connect at cultural, sporting, recreational and shopping hubs that are linked by accessible and well-maintained roads, bicycle and walking tracks and regular, efficient and integrated public transport. People of diverse ages and cultures live safely in the natural environment, with easy access to nearby bushland.
Overview of planning themes
The three themes below describe how Council intends to achieve this vision. All of the planning ideas proposed by the draft Ferny Grove-Upper Kedron Strategy sit within these themes and are detailed in the following sections.
Living villages
Preserve the area’s village lifestyle while allowing for a better choice of housing and the growth of community hubs.