ShapingSEQ South East Queensland Regional Plan 2017, released last month, sets the framework for future growth as well as maintaining locations that promote the state’s lifestyle.
It takes into account population, housing, roads and transport, industry and the environment.
The report suggested if land and infrastructure in the Strathpine town centre were used efficiently, it had the potential to become an urban residential hub.
“By 2041, Strathpine will be more compact, mixed-use, connected and active and will provide improved urban amenity,” the plan stated.
“Housing diversity, including a range of ‘missing middle’ housing forms, will also increase in and around these places.”
Warner has also been identified, alongside North Lakes and Mango Hill, as an area for significant future expansion growth with the report saying these areas will develop as “high quality new communities”.
“These places will develop as high-quality new communities,” the plan stated.
The Moreton Bay region is set for substantial growth over the next 25 years, with the 2016 population of 438,300 predicted to increase by 217,700 to 656,000 by 2041.
The number of dwellings is also expected to increase dramatically, from 164,559 to 252,859 by 2041.
Speaking at The Courier-Mail’s Future Brisbane lunch, leading demographer Bernard Salt said Brisbane was on a trajectory to join Sydney and Melbourne as Australia’s global cities.
He said the key to maintaining that growth was to develop economic and employment hubs away from the city centre including mini-city communities in Moreton Bay.
“What we will see is the decentralisation of employment,” he said. “I don’t think the millennial generation will commute vast distances to work.”
Traffic congestion will also be addressed by “delivering improvements to the M1 through the Moreton Bay region” as well as construction of the North-South Urban Arterial between Bald Hills and Kallangur to relieve pressure on the Bruce Highway.
The “Mill at Moreton Bay” precinct at Petrie was also identified in the plan as having potential to be one of the “Great Places” of South East Queensland.
“It will be a thriving new precinct generating thousands of higher education and employment opportunities; with the University of the Sunshine Coast campus at its core,” it stated.
“The precinct aspires to offer world-class study opportunities with an on-site train station.”
Further afield, rural townships including Samford and Dayboro were praised for their “rural charms” and were said to become “great examples of traditional towns that are becoming great places for residents and visitors”.
The Lakeside Park motorsport precinct at Kurwongbah has been flagged in the plan as an area to be preserved in the long term as it “supports recreational activities which are otherwise difficult to locate.”