The long-awaited release of the Queensland Government’s draft SEQ Regional Plan has been warmly welcomed by Carmichael College and its neighbours.

State Member for Morayfield, Mark Ryan MP, said that the draft SEQ Regional Plan has been years in the making and includes a proposal to include the site of Carmichael College and neighbouring land in the SEQ Urban Footprint.

"This proposal is a big deal for Carmichael College and will allow the school to continue to grow with the addition of a high school within the next few years.

"If the site was to remain outside the SEQ Urban Footprint, the College would not be permitted to grow any larger under existing planning laws," Mr Ryan said.

"Including the College in the SEQ Urban Footprint will remove those size restrictions and in turn ensure our community will have sufficient education facilities to meet our growing local population."

Principal of Carmichael College, Margot Pinel, said that the school’s inclusion in the urban footprint would open up new opportunities for their growing school community.

"We are a growing school and we’ve always known that the pressure to expand would only increase over time," Mrs Pinel said.

"But being situated outside the urban footprint meant that our ability to respond to that pressure was restricted.

"This change will allow us to offer new opportunities for local families and even expand over the next few years to offer secondary schooling."

The draft SEQ Regional Plan is open for public consultation until 3 March 2017. For more information visit www.qld.gov.au/shapingseq