Toowong Residents Group

19/08/2026

Toowong central development update:

On 19 August, the Brisbane City Council development application assessors have provided the developer additional topics requiring design refinement for the Heart of Toowong development for the former Woolworths site.

The additional Council topics include podium presentation to neighbouring sites, pedestrian flows from the proposed indented High Street bus stop and general pedestrian circulation around the site, clarifications on the rooming accommodation facilities, secure mail and parcel deliveries, noise impact assessment, vehicular access and integration with the local streets including practical refuse collection trucks, questions on car parking spaces and internal traffic, stormwater management and flood mitigation.

The Council also seeks additional information related to the proposed relocation of the heritage building known as Carver & Co, currently a laundromat.

The lack of any reference to building height, shadows, glare management or housing mix implies the Council has no remaining concerns on these topics.

Further information can be found on the Brisbane City Council's developmenti website with application reference number A006836692.

07/07/2026

Toowong Central Development Update

On 6 July, the developers of Heart of Toowong development have submitted a revised and improved design for Council assessment in response to the Council's 13-page list of concerns from 8 May.

Key changes:

The original three towers of 49, 55 and 58 storeys have been amended to four smaller towers each between 33 and 39 storeys. The new towers have smaller footprints, allowing for improved setbacks to neighbouring buildings and reduction in shadow impacts.

The proposed development revises its diversity of residential accommodation to add short-term accommodation, build-to-rent, rooming accommodation and a retirement facility.

Retail tenancies and publicly-accessible open spaces have been relocated to be closer to Sherwood Road, addressing the original design's isolation from Toowong Village and the railway station.

There are reductions to car parking capacity: 756 residential spaces, 77 visitors spaces, 105 spaces for student accommodation, 103 resident + 51 visitor spaces for Build-to-Rent and 332 car spaces for retail & commercial use.

An upgraded High Street bus stop with capacity for up to 3 buses while also allowing for future road widening.

With the heritage building known as Carver & Co (currently operating as dry cleaners), the developer proposes relocating the heritage building 30 metres North along High St and no longer underneath one of the towers. Extracts: "The relocation will involve the dismantling of the heritage building into a number of sections, to be relocated and reconstructed in the new location." -and- "Some elements of the building will likely be demolished and removed as part of the relocation, including the ground floor front and southern side elevations and the ground floor rear elevations.".

The application has claimed constraints of existing underground infrastructure and basement requirements prevent an increase to deep planting areas (6%), though additional ground-level green planter landscaping is shown in the plans.

Construction will be delivered across 5 stages, previously 4.

There are 18 revised planning documents now uploaded to the Council developmenti.brisbane.qld.gov.au website, choose Application Search with reference A006836692.

A July 6 document titled "Response to Further Advice" provides an overall summary of the design changes. The heritage building relocation plan is detailed in Appendices D and E.

20/06/2026

Last week, the Brisbane City Council budget was published.

For ratepayers, a Brisbane Times article summarised a general rates increase for Toowong of 5.06%.

Below is the list of budgeted items specified for Suburb of Toowong:

* Toowong Upgrade Projects - not detailed, but likely to include the Sylvan Rd bikeway changes
* Toowong Hands and Hearts Fair - annual community event funding retained
* Road Construction Minor: Coronation Drive (continuing)
* Footpath and Bikeway Reconstruction: Burns Rd (continuing) and Dean St (continuing)
* Road Network Renewal: Clayton Lane, Dean St, Earle Lane, High Street, Sylvan Rd and Ventnor St (continuing). The road resurfacing of High Street & Sylvan Rd were highlighted roads of "Operation Smooth" in the Lord Mayor's budget speech.
* Major Waterways Vegetation Management: Toowong Creek - Moggill Rd

So what's happening with the Toowong-West End Green Bridge? It is no longer listed in the budget as per past years.

However, the Lord Mayor stated in his speech "We’ll also progress a business case into a new pedestrian bridge between Toowong and West End after securing the necessary land. This bridge might not be an immediate priority."

There are other Council programmes that cover multiple suburbs, including Toowong. In addition, the Story Bridge has a received substantial funding for a long-term renewal and longevity programme, with funding support being sought by the Council from State and Federal Governments.

Further budget details can be found on the Brisbane City Council website.

18/05/2026

The Brisbane City Council has published two consolidated concept designs for a separated bikeway along Sylvan Rd Toowong to address safety concerns between the Bicentennial Bikeway at the river through the Western Freeway bikeway.

The Council is inviting public feedback to the two concept designs, including 2 public pop-up sessions on Wednesday 27 May & Sunday 31 May for those with questions. The Council is not considering any other alternatives to the two engineered designs as presented.

Adoption of a safer passage has been a long-standing public concern about safe cycling on the connection between two major bikeways, with current "separation" provided by painted bike lanes.

Changes will be made also to vehicle traffic intersections on the side streets into & out of Sylvan Rd (e.g. left turns only) and there are also traffic changes common to both concept designs for the intersection of Milton Rd, Croyden St and Morley St.

You can find out more details on the concepts, the pop-up sessions and how to provide your response using this link:
https://www.brisbane.qld.gov.au/about-council/council-projects/sylvan-road-bikeway-and-local-network-improvements-toowong

The Council public online survey closes on Sunday 14 June.

09/05/2026

Toowong development application update :

It's been 5 months since the public response period closed to the proposed Heart of Toowong development consisting of tower heights of 49, 55 and 58 storeys on the former Woolworths site at High St, Sherwood Rd and Jephson St at Toowong. There were circa 600 public submissions to the application, a wide mix of supportive & opposed to the proposal.

On Friday 8 May, the Brisbane City Council assessment team has responded to the developer with a long list (13 pages) of concerns requiring modifications to the design under the title "Further Advice". The Council requires significant design modifications before it could consider approval of the development.

The Council assessment is not supportive of:
- the proposed building heights
- its presentation and access from Sherwood Road
- impact on future neighbouring development
- the risks posed to the Heritage building on the site including excavation under the building
- vehicle access
- bicycle storage and access
- allowance for future road widening
- traffic flows on the 3 property boundary roads
- stormwater management
- refuse collection
- earthworks during construction
- public spaces and streetscape
- lack of deep planting, and
- noise management.

The public requests for affordable housing are likely outside of the assessors' criteria. Public concerns about shadow impacts and sun glare are not directly mentioned, but are related to building height.

You can find out more detail on the "Further Advice" letter on the Council's developmenti website at https://developmenti.brisbane.qld.gov.au/Home/FilterDirect?filters=DANumber=A006836692

08/04/2026

This Sunday morning (12 April), the Tour De Brisbane will limit access on many roads around Brisbane, including the following Toowong streets between 4:30am and up to an estimated 12:30pm:
Ada St, Birdwood Tce, Frederick St, Horrocks St, Legacy Way Tunnel Eastbound, Milton Road, Mt Coot-tha Road, Paddington Dve, Richer St, Simpsons Road, Sir Samuel Griffith Drive, Walter St and the Western Freeway.

Details on the multiple routes can be found at:

NEXT EVENT DATE – SUNDAY 12 APRIL 2026 ACCESS AND DETOUR PLANS Our partners

18/11/2025

The Heart of Toowong development has entered the official public consultation stage with the Brisbane City Council. There's been strong interest expressed on the Council website with a growing number of public submissions both in favour and against the proposed development.

On 7 October, the Council acknowledged that the proposed building heights of 49, 55 and 58 storeys are "a departure" from the heights in the City Plan and Toowong-Auchenflower Neighbourhood Plan and the Council said it wishes to obtain community feedback before further progressing the application process with the developer.

Our recommendation is that whether you support or oppose or have a position somewhere in-between, the best way to make a submission is to do so on the Council website (link below) using your own words to express your views and improvement suggestions. This approach is more effective with Council assessors than any copycat submissions from a common document template or just writing to your Councillor.

However, timing is key - the Council website advises the Public Notification period concludes on Monday 8 December.

The "Assessment Report" document (sorry, you'll need to step through the Council website back to 15 August to find it) incorporates the developer's response to the overall height, setbacks, public realm and other design considerations. If the proposed height is your main concern, this is the document of interest to help make your submission responsive to the developer's rationale provided to Council.

There's plenty of other detail on the development design, with 29 documents submitted also dated 15 August by the developer that details a wide range of topics such as wind impacts (Appendix U), reflected glare from the exposed glass (App. P), noise assessment (App. O), landscape design (App. I), traffic report (App. W), Heritage (App. R) associated with the former Carver & Co building (presently a laundromat), claims of Community Benefit (App. G) and Economic Need (App. M).

The Council will consider the size and value of the site would always result in a large development on the land (it is flagged in the town plan as a Catalyst Site), and the close proximity of public transport will be part of the justification for increased height and living capacity at that location.

This link is to the Council developmenti website to review documents and place a submission:

https://developmenti.brisbane.qld.gov.au/Home/FilterDirect?filters=DANumber=A006836692

22/09/2025

Regarding the proposed Toowong Central development, university student Brianna is studying a course on Development and Social Impact Assessment. Her study group has chosen to focus on the Toowong Central Development and is seeking community feedback through online surveys and face-to-face conversations.

She has designed a short survey (5 to 10 minutes) to capture residents, students and workers' thoughts, concerns and aspirations regarding the development. She advises the responses are confidential and will be used for academic purposes only.

If you would like to participate, the survey link is :

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16/08/2025

The development application for Toowong Central "Heart of Toowong" has been submitted to the Council for assessment. The site is located on the former Woolworths site together with the Compare the Market office building and the Asian supermarket along High St.

The heritage laundromat building (Carver & Co.) is being retained underneath one of the towers. The Toowong and Auchenflower Neighbourhood Plan identifies the site as a 'Catalyst Site'. It consists of 939 regular + 92 short-term accommodation units split across 3 tall towers.

The application is ambitious in seeking approval for 3 towers that will dominate the surrounding area buildings at tower heights of 55, 58 and 49 storeys respectively. The Neighbourhood Plan allows for 25 storeys on the site, with additional height requiring an Impact Assessment process to justify the excess height.

The application is generally in line with the community consultation sessions conducted on 11 June which focussed on community facilities and benefits to justify the height.

The application detail includes tower and facility designs, traffic analysis, reflected glare & wind impact, heritage assessment, existing land contamination, a claim for economic need and other assessment criteria.

The application is open for community responses to its impact, primarily height. The community response will be considered by the Council's development assessors whether the towers' height and associated impact can be justified. I recommend looking at the Assessment Report first before sending any comments to the Council assessors via the website.

Earlier this week, Councillor Penny Wolff has expressed her concerns about the height of the development in her page, however it is worth understanding that Councillors do not have the power to influence the Council's assessment process under the State's Planning Act.

Details can be found at:
https://developmenti.brisbane.qld.gov.au//Home/FilterDirect?filters=DANumber=A006836692

The documents available on the Council developmenti website lacks Appendix E - the pre-lodgement advice of the Council's Independent Design Advisory Panel (IDAP), which would have been interesting.

18/06/2025

In today's Brisbane City Council budget, the following items were listed for the Toowong suburb:

* Community Festival support - Toowong Hands and Hearts Fair
* Road Construction Minor - Coronation Drive at Toowong
* Footpath and Bikeway Reconstruction - Burns Road, Dean Street, Oakman Park, Ivy Street and Jephson Street
* Road Network Renewal - Sir Samuel Griffith Drive, Ventnor St and Vera St
* Safety Fences and Guard Rails - Moggill Rd at Toowong
* Playground Replacements - Perrin Park
* Upgrade Neighbourhood Parks - Perrin Park
* Transport Network - "Toowong Upgrade Projects". No detail shown in the budget papers, but it may be related to the Sylvan Road bikeway and local network improvements between the Western Freeway and the Bicentennial bikeways.

In February, it was announced that the Council would receive a $5 million Commonwealth grant towards a $12 million project to construct the Sylvan Road Bikeway for active transport.

I could not locate references in the budget to the proposed Toowong-West End active transport bridge which is dependent on State and/or Commonwealth funding.