New plan to boost local jobs for Moreton Bay
Published 13 December 2024
City of Moreton Bay has shared its plan to transform parts of Narangba East into a major employment precinct with up to 10,500 new local jobs to support the City’s growing population and ease industrial land shortages in South East Queensland.
Council adopted three separate planning and placemaking reports that will create more employment opportunities for residents to live, work and play locally, while balancing the City’s needs to accommodate future housing and growth.
- The Urban Areas Employment Lands Investigation (UAELI): Land Supply Update 2024 highlights City of Moreton Bay’s need to unlock new industrial land to create local jobs for its growing population.
- The Narangba East Planning Investigation: Phase 1 investigates the potential for new industrial and housing land uses for Narangba East (west of Bruce Highway) and work with industry to inform more detailed planning and activation over the coming decades.
- The Narangba Innovation Precinct Planning Scheme amendment consolidates four years of investigative work to balance the need to support existing and new special and high impact industries within its current boundaries (east of Bruce Highway), while protecting residential areas nearby the precinct.
Mayor Peter Flannery said Narangba East and the Narangba Innovation Precinct would help address a growing industrial land crisis facing City of Moreton Bay.
“City of Moreton Bay remains dedicated to hitting its housing targets to support South East Queensland’s burgeoning population, but with growth comes the need to create local jobs,” he said.
“When we became Australia’s newest city, with a deliberate approach toward a polycentric model, the plan was to create a place where residents could work, live and play, without needing to travel long distances to Brisbane or the Sunshine Coast for employment.
“The State Government’s ShapingSEQ plan outlines that City of Moreton Bay must accommodate 125,800 new homes and a minimum of 85,400 new jobs by 2046.
“We currently have 12 major growth fronts across the city to address the new homes aspect, but we’ve started to fall behind on our targets for new jobs.
“Our latest data shows that we’re currently being forced to turn away 60% of industrial land enquiries due to a lack of available land for these uses.
“It also shows that 80,000 Moreton Bay residents currently commute outside of the city for work every week, and we want to give those people the opportunity to work closer to home.
“This means we need to act quickly to unlock industrial land so developers, small businesses, investors and big businesses all have opportunities to grow within Moreton Bay.
“The Narangba East Planning Investigation and Narangba Innovation Precinct have been earmarked as areas that can help address these challenges in the long-term, but much more still needs to be done.”
Deputy Mayor Jodie Shipway said an additional 25,400 jobs and $9 billion of economic value would be created by 2056, if we met the industrial land targets outlined in the UAELI update report.
“These changes will create the local jobs that our children will need as they grow up to support our growing economy, and Narangba East is the perfect location to start” she said.
“Unlocking this land will help us transition into a mature city by diversifying our economy and ensuring we hit the targets outlined in our Regional Economic Development Strategy to create more jobs for the city.
“Narangba East and Narangba Innovation Precinct are perfectly located for business, being in the centre of our city and having quick access to the Bruce Highway.
“Narangba East has been earmarked for development for over a decade in the 2012 Narangba East Strategy and is suitable for these land uses.
“The next step will be to establish a Moreton Bay Future Industry Forum to work with industry to inform more detailed planning for the Narangba East precinct; alongside opportunities for other existing and emerging industrial areas as outlined in our Growth Management Strategy.”
Councillor Sandra Ruck (Div 5) said the Narangba Innovation Precinct Planning Scheme amendment would consolidate four years of extensive environmental health and economic investigations.
“This Planning Scheme amendment proposes to balance industry investment and viability, with the management of health, safety and amenity,” she said.
“This is in response to the current Temporary Local Planning Instrument.
“The amendment supports special and high impact industries to grow and establish in a defined Special Industry area within the existing boundaries of the precinct.
“This complements the existing uses and allows more investment into jobs for Moreton Bay locals while protecting nearby residential areas.
“Land that has environmental value, such as the area north of the innovation precinct, will remain untouched by the proposed Planning Scheme amendment.
“This is a statutory process that requires rigorous State Government review before we can take the proposed amendment to the community for feedback.
“We will keep the community informed throughout the process through our Your Say Moreton Bay webpage.”
View the Urban Areas Employment Lands Investigation (UAELI): Land Supply Update 2024 here.
View the Narangba East Planning Investigation here.
View the Narangba Innovation Precinct Planning Scheme amendment here.