‘It’s the Bronx of the future’

HOPE Island residents fear their slice of paradise will be transformed into a concrete jungle as new developments flood into the suburb.

High-density apartment blocks are being built along Sickle Ave in the new Park Cove estate, while other housing developments, Waterville and The Anchorage, have also gone up recently. A fourth major housing lot on Grant Ave, boasting 3866 bedrooms, is on the drawing board.

Hope Island residents fear the building boom will put heavy strain on local roads, as well as existing water, electricity and sewerage lines.

Paradise Point and Northern Districts Progress Association interim chairwoman Diane Woods said the “overdevelopment” will strangle the area.

“We are calling it the ‘Bronx of the future’, everyone will be crammed in and you can see the infrastructure just isn’t going to cope, if there is an accident emergency services will struggle to get in and out,” she said.

Mrs Woods said the community was concerned about a lack of new open spaces, as well as the pressure on parking.

“There’s no public transport nearby and no buses within two kilometres, so people will need cars, and where will they go?” she said. “The Park Cove development has no visitor parking, and it’s already spilling over onto the street.”

The Progress Association said it was open to more homes but said the type of property being developed was not suitable. They are calling for the council to follow Brisbane’s lead and introduce townhouse and apartment bans in lowdensity areas.

However area councillor and city planning boss Cameron Caldwell said such policies were already in place.

“Hope Island is a community-lead master plan design which accommodates a mix of housing types, the city plan already has strong planning controls to ensure that highrises and townhouses do not occur in low-density residential areas,” he said.

“The infrastructure that was built prior to most of the development was designed to service a much higher density than will now ever be reached.”