REMEMBER WHEN

CONCERNS about development on the Gold Coast are nothing new. In 1984, a Gold Coast councillor opened up to the Bulletin about what he feared could happen to the city.

Southport councillor Athol Paterson declared that a Brisbane-based bureaucracy was threatening to turn parts of the Gold Coast into a slum.

Cr Paterson said proposed changes in building by-laws by the Building Advisory Committee meant the Gold Coast could gain densely populated areas similar to Brisbane’s Spring Hill.

“And the worst part about it is the council could not do anything to stop it,” he said.

“There is a danger of this Brisbane-based bureaucracy making decisions that will affect the Coast and every other shire or council in Queensland.

“Instead of being allowed to develop our own architectural style, the Coast will be standardised to look like every other area in the state and this is wrong.”

Cr Paterson said then-new site coverage proposals, which were set to increase from 40 per cent to 60 per cent, would have a detrimental effect on people already living on the Gold Coast.

Under the proposal, houses could be built within 1.5m of property lines, with only minimal gardens required.

“The Coast will be overbuilt like Spring Hill and houses virtually adjoining each other with hardly any garden, and slums will develop,” Cr Paterson said.

“No doubt these ideas were designed to suit smaller blocks, of which there are very few on the Gold Coast but there are in Brisbane.”