New DA For Driving Range Falls ShortAction needed... ASAP
By now most of you will have heard about yet another new DA lodged by the Developer on the former North Lakes Golf Course (designated open space) land.
This time it's a welcome change from high-density housing and aged care, but it still does not deliver on our community expectations. What is proposed now is a large-scale, two-level commercial driving range, similar to Golf Central (Brisbane Airport) or Topgolf (Gold Coast).
Key features of the proposal include 60 driving range bays over two levels (partly on the site of the historical driving range), two bars and a conference room (ignoring the existing clubhouse), and a new 141 space car park built directly on golf course land (ignoring the existing car park just 50m away). In total it has a 5,200m² footprint, with a 10.8m-high building and 35m of netting - which would be the tallest structure in North Lakes! The plan is for opening hours of 8am to 10pm, 7 days a week -imagine the noise, lighting, and traffic impacts to nearby residents.
The Mango Hill Infrastructure Development Control Plan (Master Plan) for North Lakes, which has stood the test of time, envisaged, in Section 3.1 (the Central Open Space precinct) to provide "a comprehensive and integrated system of open space fulfilling aesthetic, recreation, conservation, transportation and environmental management functions for the DCP area”. (emphasis added). So, whilst this is far better than a full retirement village and nursing home, it is a piecemeal development - certainly not comprehensive nor integrated over the whole space. Not only would this leave open the prospect of future development (of who knows what?) on the rest of the site, but by taking out the 10th hole, it would chop the former golf course in two, most likely meaning this could never again be an 18 hole course, certainly not a championship course. This was, after all, ranked in Australia's Top 100 courses the year before it closed!
Now, in terms of Council processes, we understand that because it does not involve a lot of buildings, this DA is what they call "Code Assessable" which apparently means it could be decided by Council Officers (after doing all their checks etc) with possibly no formal public/community notification period (ie chance to object) and the elected Councillors not even voting on it!
Notwithstanding this, you can still have your say on this development by emailing submissions to council@moretonbay.qld.gov.au and quoting DA/2025/3488.
On our reading of the DA (and it's 11 attachments) other major concerns include:
Extensive civil works proposed for the driving range, the driving range building and car park. These works sit over a council owned stormwater and flood control easement, raising serious questions about potential impacts on local water flow and flood mitigation if any relaxation of this easement is approved by the council.
The proposed site disrupts the key pedestrian corridor connecting the east and west sides of North Lakes. A lot of school children use this route daily — yet VRG proposes a high-traffic driveway that is expected to carry 200,000 vehicle movements per year, including cars, trucks, and delivery vehicles.
The proposal also involves the removal of extensive trees (it covers a far wider area than the historical driving range), vegetation and habitat.
