A new more than 70-home estate tucked in between the Captain Cook Highway and the hills at Mossman is a step closer to being built after it was ticked off by councillors in this week’s Douglas Shire Council meeting.

The estate is set to go on vacant land behind the Mossman cemetery region, but council staff are imposing extra conditions on the company doing the development, Gull Mossman Gorge, to try to limit the risk of flooding after the neighbouring Shepherd Valley estate was inundated with water in the aftermath of Cyclone Jasper.

A pair of drainage reserves and a park are set to be included in the estate, which will be accessible via Shepherd Valley despite the address of the current vacant lot being 52-80 Coral Sea Drive.

During the council meeting, Cr Michael Rees said he was happy to see the development going ahead because it fitted in well with DSC’s “housing action plan”.

More housing is “what we need”, Cr Rees said.

Cr Abigail Noli asked for more information from council staff about what will be done to protect against flooding.

“After Cyclone Jasper, one concern that councillors may have, and also obviously the public, is that we saw quite a lot of flooding to the residents in the houses at Shepherd Valley,” Cr Noli said.

She asked for an explanation “as to why council officers are satisfied this subdivision will not cause increased flooding”.