ALICE GORMAN HAVE A SAY ON CITY’S FUTURE
The Gold Coast can look forward to prosperous times but there are some enormous challenges to overcome
PLANNING for the future is a tough job.
It’s hard enough on the home front, let alone planning for a rapidly-growing beach city such as the Gold Coast.
It takes vision, brave leadership and a bold approach to get it right.
You can be part of future planning right now.
The State Government is seeking input into its ShapingSEQ Regional Plan and you have until March 3 to have a say.
The plan maps the future of Queensland’s southeast corner for the next 50 years.
For the Gold Coast, future of growth and development.
This means making more of the areas that are already popular … and more importantly capitalising on existing infrastructure. Think Helensvale, Palm Beach, Burleigh Heads, Southport, Robina, Surfers Paradise, Bundall.
Plus there’s plans for more growth in greenfield areas such as Pimpama and Coomera in the city’s north.
By 2041 the southeast Queensland population is tipped to include nearly two the it’s a infill million extra people. For the Gold Coast that means a population of 928,000 (555,600 in 2015) and the need for an additional 176,000 dwellings (up from 217,100 in 2011).
Shaping SEQ predicts that between 2011 and 2041, 79 per cent, or 139,000, of the city’s additional dwellings will be infill.
Infill development, while logical on paper, has huge implications for residents living in the Coast’s popular hubs.
If infill development is to be a success it must be tied to sufficient investment in roads and transport.
Anyone living in the busy coastal strip from Main Beach to Currumbin is already feeling the effects of the growth the suburbs have experienced over the past decade.
Palm Beach is the latest beachside hot spot. Properties are being hotly traded and prices are climbing.
The popularity of Palmy has seen an influx of trendy new shops, cafes, restaurants and bars. It’s fantastic to see, but it’s also brought its fair share of growing pains.
Parking spaces are at a premium and local councillor Daphne McDonald is concerned the worst is yet to come.
On her public Facebook page she has encouraged residents to have a say on the regional plan and to write to the council about the implications of allowing high-density developments along the busy strip.
She claims the council’s planning department is already relaxing site coverage, density, parking and setback allowances, and allowing a reduction in the amount of communal open space developers must dedicate.
“The City of Gold Coast planners are allowing buildings with density near to RD8 heading like Surfers. Do we really want this for Palm Beach?” she asked her Facebook community recently.
There are two key planning issues facing the city.
The first is around the scale of development being allowed and whether that development should come at the cost of parking, site coverage, setbacks and community amenity. The second is the city’s investment in roads and public transport to cope with the predicted population increases.
Work is well progressed on planning for stage three of the Gold Coast light rail, which would link Broadbeach with Burleigh Heads and later with the airport.
This week Gold Coast Light Rail project and corridor development manager Ken Deutscher told a light rail conference that new stations should be located near crowds of people. It seems obvious, but also problematic in Burleigh Heads and Palm Beach, where road networks are already under pressure.
The city, while facing an exciting and prosperous future, also faces some enormous challenges.
How can the Gold Coast grow at the rates being predicted, without losing the quality of life which drew so many of us here?
Standards must be upheld when assessing development.
Now is the time for strong leadership, sensible decisionmaking and a bold vision.
Bad decisions and a “she’ll be right” attitude today, will hurt us all in the future.