Owners of 10 homes forced to sell to council

The owners of 10 Brisbane homes have been forced to hand their properties over to Brisbane City Council so a $115 road-widening project can be completed.

The two-stage Wynnum Road road upgrade was first announced by the council in 2014 and, in order to widen Lytton Road to six lanes, the full and partial resumption of 49 properties was required.

Last Friday, the remaining 10 property owners who were yet to reach a sale agreement with the council had their properties transferred to the council by means of the state government gazette.

Lord mayor Graham Quirk said following the gazettal, all 49 partial and full properties required for the project would be in council ownership and construction could commence early next year.

The council had previously settled with 39 property owners and seven acquired building have already been removed.

The remaining buildings acquired by the council will be either relocated or demolished by early next year.

“Council will continue to work over the coming months to provide support to affected stakeholders and ensure they have suitable opportunity [to] make accommodation arrangements prior to council needing to remove the houses,” Cr Quirk said.

The council had to get the assistance of the state government to finalise the acquisition process as per the state government’s Acquisition of Land Act.

The act states land can be acquired by negotiation with the landholder or through compulsory acquisition.

“Local governments can acquire land for purposes related to local government functions,” the act says.

“If a compulsory acquisition is proposed for land you hold, you will receive a notice of intention to resume.

“If you and the constructing authority agree to the acquisition, the taking of the land is effective from the date the notice for the taking of the land is published in the Queensland Government Gazette.”

The acquisitions of the 10 properties were published in the state government gazette on October 20.

Council is currently reviewing tenders for construction of stage one of the upgrade and expect to announce the successful contract by the end of the year.

Construction is expected to start early 2018.