Depends on the zoning - not much in Brisbane given that most land around train stations is underdeveloped or zoned industrial.
Is the top image real? I’m pretty sure that would not be legal under any Australian zoning.
Having said that, I generally agree that we fetishize detached dwellings beyond the point at which it makes sense.
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This appears to be Shorehaven Estate in Alkimos, WA. I actually got a notification about this on the BTQ Instagram account this morning from what appears to be a WA politician’s account
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Having had some experience with living in townhouses as well as a “sardine detached dwelling”, there are some intractable issues which push people towards detached dwellings in Australia:
- Poor construction quality - the potential financial consequences are significantly worse for apartments compared to houses. Unfortunately these issues appear to be more common in Australia than should be the case.
- No body corporate rules - having more freedom to do things to your property is quite attractive
- One of the attractors of a townhouse/apartment is not needing to do gardening. These detached houses also offer the same benefit by not having any yard to maintain.
- Being able to install solar+battery (also possible with townhouses, more difficult with apartments)
- Being able to customise your internal room layout and having greater flexibility with your internal fitout (when building from scratch). No issues with changing your flooring and getting complaints from your downstairs neighbour
Ah, I think they are actually townhouses which are not detached dwellings as they share walls. That is a somewhat different thing and is actually a very old style of housing in Australia, as you could really see this:
as really just a new version of this:
Incidentally, it makes me almost want to cry to see that new suburb 40km from the city with a train station with every fifteen minutes service and five bus routes serving it.
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Nothing wrong with bodycorporate. A little bit of communism won’t hurt anyone.
These are reasonable concerns. To compensate, I think things like stamp duty and rates should be significantly lower for apartments. I believe stamp duty concessions are available for new build apartments, but they should apply to all apartments due to how much more resource-efficient dense living is. I think BCC charges lower rates for apartments but they hiked them for new purchases in the inner city this past year, which seems counterproductive.
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Removed the political jargon from it. This vacant block of land in Banyo is going to provide 400 new homes, just a short walk from Banyo Station.
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Proposal, between now and [say] 2050 “sink/cover” all train lines, within say 5km of the city, by selling off all [viable] overhead air-space for development!
Ferny Grove just looks like an absolute joke of a TOD. Does the state government really think that one high-rise and a massive car-park unit is enough to justify calling it a TOD? Ferny Grove is also such an awful place for high-density development as well, being eerily close to protected nature reserve? The only places that I see justified for TOD on the Ferny Grove line are Alderly and Mitchelton.
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Definitely common sense that road access will be needed for a TOD, as if there is no better form of access to a transit-oriented development.
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The toombul site will be developed at some stage, hopefully combined with expansions at skygate for big box retail (IE 24hr Kmart). A decent mid size shopping centre with medium to high density flood proofed housing would be fantastic for the area and help take the pressure off Chermside, especially for all those new residents coming to Banyo
It will need some updates, and I stand by my earlier suggestion to move eagle junctions connectivity to a new super station at Toombul, with the addition of an extra station at Skygate.
Simplifying and downgrading EJ to just a regular station and having Toombul be the major connector will go a long way to unlocking TOD benefits where it can be built. EJ is just not up to par for a key connecting station. Keep in mind that this suggestion does not duplicate toombul bus station, it relocates it closer to the rail line where you can have much better connections. Green space taken by the extra platforms on the airport line can be out back on the toombul site.
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^^This will provide convenience retail for local workers and residents as well as for people transfering services.
I agree with most of your post, but I actually see this part as a good thing, because having protected reserves nearby puts a hard limit on suburban sprawl, which forces further development upwards rather than outwards. Geographic barriers are sometimes the best thing for promoting denser development. In my opinion, the bigger factor in whether a place is good for TOD or not is the slope of the land, because it’s much harder for people with mobility issues to get places if they’re up a steep slope.
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https://forum.bettertransportqueensland.org/t/train-station-accessibility-upgrades/464/92?u=sherooda
Eagle Junction is the express stop for the Doomden line that’s why the airport line splits there. the EJ configuration merges the Doomben and and Airportline connection.
Northgate is an inaccessible nothing station (compared to say the bus interchange and development at Carseldine) but it gets express stops because of the Shorncliffe line.
All of the express stations and timetabling are designed for rail integration with no regard for bus connectivity. but then again these railway lines have been around since before the invention of buses.
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If we’re targeting bus interconnectivity then Toombul should be the express stop for the inner NE area.
There are a million reasons for a station to be or not to be (an express stop).
I would argue that the outdated reason of (Northgate example) being able to hop off a Caboolture Line train and swap to a Shorncliffe Line train, is far less important than having connections available to different transport modes.
I would like to see the missing link, a connection from the north to the Airport line built, and Toombul to become the transfer station for North Coast, Shorncliffe, and Airport lines. It needs a lot of love though. It’s not fit for its current purpose let alone that. Interesting proposal from someone else on here recently for a beefed up station at Toombul.
The other issue is that “Toombul” doesn’t refer to a current place. The station is within the suburb of Nundah. The word is thought to be associated with the Aboriginal word for place of hoop pines.
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