REDLAND City Council will tackle an urgent review of the City Plan to look at ways to protect environmental corridors in the urban part of the city.
Cr Wendy Boglary has pushed for a review of the plan as the state koala mapping only covered vegetated areas, not vital corridors linking habitat area.
“For environmental corridors to be safe pathways for various species of our local animals to sustain their population in breeding and feeding habitat area, there has to be a web across the city. This is even stated in councils previous planning scheme,” she said.
A Griffith University research report prepared for council in July this year stated koala population in SEQ was rapidly declining and vehicle strikes was recognised as a major source of koala mortality.
Council will now look at ways to strengthen protections to environmental corridors within the urban footprint as identified in the wildlife connections plan 2018-2028.
Cr Mark Edwards said focus will be on how these corridors can be better protected through statutory land use planning to ensure wildlife can traverse these urban areas.
Council officers will prepare a report outlining options, which will then come back to councillors for their consideration.
“Councillors will consider the report and decide the best way forward, which may include a major amendment to the City Plan by the end of May next year,” Cr Edwards said.
He said this will include consultation with councillors, and the community will then have an opportunity to have their say during the formal City Plan amendment process.
However Cr Boglary says this is just a delaying tactic.
“This delays the state review and then delays community consultation,” she said.
Cr Boglary said she would like to progress the Environmental Corridor Amendment to the state government so the work could then commence to public consultation.
“Other SEQ councils already have protection of their corridors and Brisbane recently even increased their protection.
“This work was always intended to be included in the City Plan before adoption but for whatever reason the resources weren’t allocated and the work wasn’t completed in time,” she said.
“This is a bit like groundhog day, but we need to talk about it…here we are two years later and once again …this motion to review the City Plan narrows the work down to only blocks in the urban area.
“To be viable both urban and rural areas need to have safe wildlife passage,” Cr Boglary said.
