WAVE OF DISCONTENT Clifton Beach battle brews over eight-storey twin-towers plan
Hostility to project building
CLIFTON BEACH residents are taking up battle stations against a plan to transform the sleepy village’s skyline with a towering eight-storey waterfront unit complex.
Developers have applied to Cairns Regional Council to construct twin-tower residential and holiday accommodation with 109 apartments on the esplanade, hoping to sidestep height restrictions limiting buildings to four storeys.
Neighbours are priming themselves for a tooth-andnail fight to stop the project dead in its tracks.
CLIFTON Beach residents are gearing up to block a developer from building a towering pair of eight-storey apartment complexes on the sleepy village’s esplanade.
The proposed 109-unit Elements on Arlington project would be twice as tall as Cairns Regional Council’s four-storey height limit for the area – an obstacle the developers hope to circumvent by proving it “remains consistent with the higher order provisions” of the planning scheme.
No other buildings along Arlington Esplanade exceed the four-storey, 15m height limit, and residents are adamant this one will fall into line.
Linda St Quintin, who owns and operates Clifton Sands Holiday Apartments a street back from the proposed multistorey complex, said a storm was brewing in the quiet area.
She said residents were preparing to form an action committee to fight the project.
“All of the residents and owners at (neighbouring) Clifton Gardens are absolutely furious,” she said.
“People come to Clifton Beach because it is a private, non-commercial residential village.
“If they put that up, it may as well be Palm Cove or Trinity Beach.”
Developers J2J Pty Ltd, who could not be contacted yesterday, bought the property with an existing 2008 approval to build a four-storey unit block still valid until May next year.
Their application says the current plans are not viable and would be allowed to lapse regardless of the expanded application’s outcome.
The document argued the approved structure was already a storey taller than Clifton Sands, so beach views would be lost whether an extra four levels were added or not.
The site currently houses a two-storey, eight-unit apartment block and vacant land.