Developers say the State Government is "an inefficient and ineffective developer of industrial land" and are calling for them focus on speeding up the currently "log-jammed" approval process instead of "chasing votes".

Jones Lang LaSalle Director of Industrial Property Steve de Nys says if the State Government was to divert its recently-announced $109 million budget allocation for industrial land development towards solving the current "planning paralysis" and left the physical development of land to the private sector, South East Queensland would "have a far more efficient and competitive industrial land market generating jobs and investment sooner".

"We don't need the State Government developing industrial estates, we just need them to ensure the approval process is time and cost effective," says de Nys.

"Town planning approval delays have been the single biggest impediment to industrial land development in SEQ over the past 5 years."

These delays and costs are best illustrated through the Metroplex at Westgate development. Heralded as the ‘next generation’ business park, Stage One of the billion dollar development was set for open in August 2008, however extensive Brisbane City Council approval delays have seen that date now penciled in for a Planning and Environment Court appearance.

Along with under-resourcing and unnecessary pedanticism within the Council’s planning department, industry sources also blame the Integrated Planning Act 1997 (IPA) for allowing opponents to the development to "dress up" competition-based objections.

As a consequence of such delays and the inability of developers to meet market demand, de Nys says Brisbane now has the most expensive industrial land and rental rates in Australia.

A recent Jones Lang LaSalle report, Is SEQ Headed for a land drought?, of which de Nys was a co-author, shows the price of industrial land in Brisbane increased up to 189 percent between 2003 and 2007.

Compare this with Sydney and Melbourne, where on average prices have risen around 41 and 62 percent in the same four year period.

He says it also comes down to the State Government being "an inefficient and ineffective developer of industrial land".

One example is the Government-developed Crestmead Industrial Estate, which de Nys says has come at the "sufferance of neighbours".

BDS Steel owner David Kemp, who operates from within the Crestmead compound, confirms such allegations.

"I’m the chairman of the industrial estate and we’re always having dramas with the noise, because Regents Park and the like, they’re only a couple of hundred yards away," he says.

The State Government also developed the Narangba Industrial Estate, which notoriously went up in flames in 2005, resulting in the contamination of the surrounding environment and a community uproar over noxious odours and the potential for leaching.

Deputy Opposition Leader and Shadow Minister for Infrastructure and Planning Fiona Simpson says the Government’s failure to spend only half its 2007/08 allocation for industrial land development is further proof of the Government’s inability to effectively development land.

Furthermore, she says a large portion of the $109 million budget allocated for industrial land development in 2008/09 is a rollover from last year's unspent funds.

"Altogether, 16 out of 20 industrial land development and purchase projects have been pushed back in delivery beyond 2008-09 and later," she says.

Both de Nys and Property Council Queensland Executive Director Steve Greenwood say a change in the approval process and an overhaul of the IPA is needed, along with the introduction of an up-to-date land supply and demand monitoring system similar to that in Victoria.

"The private sector has demonstrated over and over again that it is more than capable of delivering quality industrial estates consistent with and responsive to market demand with approximately 637 hectares of employment-generating land earmarked to be delivered over the next 2 years," adds de Nys.

"However, much of this proposed development is subject to and dependant upon Council Town Planning Approvals."

source: http://www.qbr.com.au