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A population inquiry in Brisbane has been told limits should be put on growth in south-east Queensland.
The Local Government Association of Queensland (LGAQ) is hosting the forum after similar events in regional Queensland.
Speakers agreed that the state’s south-east was growing too fast and at an unsustainable rate.
Johann Wright from a Sunshine Coast residents association stopped short of calling for a population cap but wants limits on those moving to the area.
Redlands Mayor Melva Hobson told the inquiry population growth needed to be tightly targetted by government.
Simon Warner from South-east Queensland Catchments said residents were loving the natural environment to death, and if vegetation in the region dropped below 30 per cent it would never recover.
Public transport costs
Meanwhile, Premier Anna Bligh says south-east Queensland councils need to ‘pitch in’ to pay more of the cost of public transport.
Brisbane City Council Lord Mayor Campbell Newman recently complained that commuters who live outside Brisbane city are crowding the bus network, and the State Government should take control.
Ms Bligh has told a Tourism and Transport Forum (TTF) lunch in Brisbane that the State Government has doubled its funding for public transport over the last six years.
She says more services could be provided in the south-east if other councils made the same funding contribution as Brisbane.
Ms Bligh has also used her speech to outline a new plan for controlling urban development in the south-east.
She says state and local governments would create “go zones” for higher density development in public transport corridors, and “no-go zones” to protect established suburbs from high density development.