Chevron village going

GOLD Coast City Council has flagged the ageing canal estate of Chevron Island behind Surfers Paradise will no longer be a village after ticking off on another tall unit block.

A council planning committee yesterday approved a development permit which will enable a 47-storey tower to replace ageing homes on a site just north of the main thoroughfare through Thomas Drive.

“The character of Chevron Island will change,” Cr Hermann Vorster said. “It’s not going to be that village, I don’t believe.

“I think we have to acknowledge the fact that that village atmosphere is perhaps unsustainable with our desire to go up and not out, and also this council’s very significant investment in the arts and cultural precinct. You know we want to make this precinct thrive and that will depend on foot traffic, and it makes sense to have more people living close to that precinct so they can enjoy it, patronise it … and make it work financially.

“The worst thing that could happen is we that we have a glorious cultural precinct here with no one to enjoy.”

Cr Vorster said he hoped the traffic congestion on Chevron Island would ease with the duplication of the Isle of Capri bridge and diverting of traffic through that canal estate from Bundall Road.

But Cr Peter Young, who joined area councillor Gary Baildon in opposing the development, questioned what would happen if council continued on its path to approve up to 20 towers for the suburb.

The tall tower and two-storey townhouses approved on six housing sites on Mawarra and Anembo streets will be about 100 metres from the Chevron Island commercial centre.

Cr Young said agenda papers showed in terms of traffic generation the prescribed density was 45 units per 33 square metres yet the proposed number totalled 190.

Officers replied that there would be a “slight impost” on the community but it was “not detrimental or adverse”.

Cr Baildon told councillors that “they’ve been doing it all over Chevron” since he returned to office.

He said he could understand that height limits had increased for areas close to light rail but questioned why council continued to approve car parking for new developments.

“How do you encourage people to use public transport when we are giving them car parks? It defeats the whole argument.”