New super suburb set to take off24.10.2007 Mackay Mercury, Written by Sarah Crawford
WORK on Mackay’s new super suburb off Eimeo Road will begin in the next couple of weeks after Mackay City Council signed off on the plan yesterday. After two years of waiting for the Mackay City Council’s (MCC) final approval, developers of Plantation Palms will soon be turning the first sods on the 298ha of land which they plan to turn into a residential complex for 5000 people. “They have approved the first 100 blocks,” Plantation Palms development and operations manager Simon Howell said. “We will start civil construction; roads, drainage, sewerage those sorts of things in three to four weeks,” he said. Mr Howell said he had already received tenders from contractors for the work. The joint project, of XCEL Properties and Paul Ramsay Group, is expected to take 10 years to complete. The community will have sporting fields, two schools, a police station, wetlands and lakes. Mr Howell said they had put in a development application for 300 blocks of the complex in August 2005, it was finally approved on December 22 last year. “Now we have just received the operational works approval,” Mr Howel said yesterday. Although they have began construction there are still two major decisions developers have yet to iron out with MCC. They have not received approval for their grey water system which will recycle household water to the extensive parklands.“We originally proposed for the water treatment plant to be set in Plantation Palms, we wanted to be able to give residents a discount on their water usage.” However Mr Howell said he was in negotiations with council which would prefer the treatment plant to be part of the existing Mackay- Bucasia Road plant. The developers are also in discussion with council over the speed limit for a major road council is keen to build through the housing estate. The council wants Chenoweth Drive which will connect Blacks Beach with Eimeo Road to be 70 km/h, but Mr Howell said this will divide and disrupt the serenity of Plantation Palms. “We want it to be 50 km/h but we are happy to compromise at 60,” he said.
24 10 2007 - New Super Suburb