Forest Lake is one of 18 Brisbane suburbs where planning rules for low-medium density residential zones may change under the More Homes, Sooner initiative, but local residents are making clear that their support for new housing hinges on whether schools, roads and public transport can keep pace with any growth the changes deliver.
The proposed changes to the LMR zone affect pockets of Forest Lake close to public transport stops and the Forest Lake Shopping Centre on Forest Lake Boulevard. Community consultation is open until Friday 20 March 2026. Forest Lake residents have delivered a pointed and practical response, cutting through abstract planning language to ask a question local families face every day: what comes first, the homes or the infrastructure to support them?
A Suburb Already Under Pressure
Developers master-planned Forest Lake from the ground up in 1991 as Brisbane’s first purpose-designed community, creating 7,700 house lots, 120 hectares of parks and the 10.9-hectare recreational lake that defines the suburb’s identity. That deliberate design gave Forest Lake its community character, but it also created fixed infrastructure and a fixed school catchment that is now under genuine strain.
Forest Lake State High School introduced an Enrolment Management Plan in August 2025, meaning the school is operating at or near capacity and is now restricting out-of-catchment enrolments. Families already living in Forest Lake say the suburb’s secondary schooling infrastructure cannot currently absorb significant additional enrolments. Community members have raised this directly in response to the More Homes, Sooner proposals, with the concern that more dwellings means more families, and more families means more pressure on schools that are already full.
The transport picture adds to that concern. Forest Lake has no train station within its boundaries. The suburb’s main public transport connections to the city are the Route 100 CityXpress from Forest Lake Shops to the city, and the Routes 460 and 461 via the Centenary Highway and Western Freeway. For the More Homes, Sooner framework to designate areas near bus stops as Key Locations eligible for four-storey development, the frequency and reliability of those services matters enormously to residents who would rely on them.
What Is Being Proposed
The changes focus on Low Medium Density Residential LMR zones, typically located near transport corridors and shopping centres rather than across entire suburbs. The proposal would lift the base building height to three storeys across all LMR land. Properties within 400 metres walking distance of a shopping centre or a bus stop with services at least every 20 minutes during the day would qualify as Key Locations and could rise to four storeys on lots of 800 square metres or more.
In Forest Lake, only areas close to high-frequency routes would meet that threshold, while streets served by lower-frequency services would remain subject to the three-storey limit.
Minimum lot sizes would reduce to 120 square metres in some circumstances, enabling small freehold houses and terrace-style homes on compact blocks in well-serviced locations. The proposal would adjust on-site car parking requirements, reducing the requirement for two-bedroom units from two spaces to 1.5 spaces citywide and to 1.2 spaces in Key Locations, reflecting declining car ownership and the significant cost car spaces add to new homes.
Design safeguards are part of the framework, including minimum setbacks from freestanding houses, maximum building footprints and requirements for street tree planting.
Affordability: The Real Question
Beyond the infrastructure debate, Forest Lake residents have raised a point that goes to the heart of why the housing crisis persists regardless of what planning rules say. More dwellings do not automatically mean affordable dwellings. Builders and developers face rising costs for labour, materials and financing, along with the tax embedded in every new build, which pushes the price of new townhouses and compact apartments in established suburban Brisbane beyond the reach of many buyers on typical incomes.
Community members have noted that easing planning controls is only one part of the equation, and that without addressing the underlying cost of construction and the viability gap that affects smaller infill projects, the number of homes actually built as a result of these changes may be far fewer than the headline figures suggest. That concern has some grounding in recent history: new dwelling approvals across Brisbane’s LMR zones fell from around 1,100 homes per year to just 445 in 2023, not because the planning rules prevented development, but because the economics of building did not stack up.
Planning-aware residents view the initiative’s adjustment of car parking requirements as one of the more practical levers, noting that a single basement car space can add up to $82,000 to the cost of a unit. Whether that alone is enough to shift the economics meaningfully is a genuine question the community is raising through this consultation.
How to Have Your Say
Consultation on the More Homes, Sooner draft amendments is open until Friday 20 March 2026. Residents can share feedback online at brisbane.qld.gov.au by searching “More Homes, Sooner”, by emailing strategicplanninghousing@brisbane.qld.gov.au, or by calling 07 3403 8888. Written submissions can be posted to Strategic Planning (More Homes Sooner), Brisbane City Council, GPO Box 1434, Brisbane QLD 4001.
Published 26-February-2026.
