AAP
Queensland's Sunshine Coast is fighting to protect its lifestyle, which it says is under threat from population increases due to state government planning.
As part of its South-East Queensland Regional Plan, the state government says almost 100,000 more homes need to be built on the Sunshine Coast, north of Brisbane, by 2031 to cater for population growth.
This includes 37,000 new homes to be built as "infill" development in existing urban areas and 61,000 new homes built on greenfield sites.
The regional council plans to oppose what it says is a state government-imposed population increase, arguing it will damage lifestyles and create unsustainable communities.
Sunshine Coast Regional Council mayor Bob Abbot said that it is "top-down" planning forced on the existing community on the whim of property developers, and the forced expansion may not be sustainable.
He said there were doubts whether the council could provide the necessary water and infrastructure in the long-term.
"We don't know whether ... that long term it's not going to destroy our lifestyle," Mr Abbot said.
He said the council preferred a "bottom-up planning process", gathering community input into what the region should look like in 30 years time.
"We'll apply those values and work out what the population will be, rather than going the other way and just blandly state a population level on a whim, with no justification other than some application that have been brought forward by the development industry," Mr Abbot said.
The mayor has faced this debate before.
As the mayor of Noosa Shire, which was amalgamated into the Sunshine Coast Regional Council, Mr Abbot inherited a policy first developed in the 1980s which sought to cap the popular sea change shire's population.
Mr Abbott said there were similar attitudes across Queensland, asking when rampant development was going to stop and locals be given a voice to protect their lifestyles.
Treasurer Andrew Fraser told AAP that any debate about population needs to include proposals to stop population growth.
"What the council's not proposing is a limit on the number of kids families can have - they're not proposing we set up Checkpoint Charlie at the Tweed River which I think frankly is un-Australian," Mr Fraser said.
"Population growth isn't governed by government policy, and to stop it would be an incredible infringement and an un-Australian infringement on the rights of Australians to have children and move freely about the nation.
"The challenge is to plan for that population growth that's occurring."
A man at the centre of southeast Queensland's protracted and unprecedented growth, Ipswich mayor Paul Pisasale, says the state government is trying to share the load as the region's population booms over the next 20 years.
"By the (Sunshine) Coast making statements like that, all they're doing is imposing more load on other parts of southeast Queensland," Mr Pisasale said.
"I'd rather be dealing with the problem of growth than the opposite."
The Sunshine Coast Regional Council (SCRC) has vowed to fight a Queensland, Australia state government development plan that would see almost 100,000 more homes built. Mayor Bob Abbot said that it was an example of "top-down" development at the whim of developers.

"We don't know whether ... that long term it's not going to destroy our lifestyle," Mr Abbot said. He also stated that the SCRC preferred a "bottom-up planing process", where the community had a say in what the region should look like in the future.

"We'll apply those values and work out what the population will be, rather than going the other way and just blandly state a population level on a whim, with no justification other than some application that have been brought forward by the development industry."

State treasurer Andrew Fraser told Australian Associated Press that there would need to be proposals made to limit population growth.

"Population growth isn't governed by government policy, and to stop it would be an incredible infringement and an un-Australian infringement on the rights of Australians to have children and move freely about the nation. The challenge is to plan for that population growth that's occurring."

Of the near 100,000 homes to be built, 31,000 would be built in existing urban areas. 61,000 new homes would be built on what is being referred to as "greenfield sites".

"The community wants us to toughen up and stick to our guns," councillor Ted Hungerford said. "If the minister is going to come in over the top of us that's up to him."