ROBINA PARK A WIN FOR US ALL

THE Gold Coast is famously a popular place for property development.

Particularly during the 1980s, the city gained a reputation as being a place where investors would snap up any available piece of land and keep it gripped tightly for as long as possible.

This of course led to the long-running issue of land banking, where developable land sat empty and unused for years while its owners held on with no intention of doing anything but waiting for the next property cycle.

It’s an issue that has frustrated city leaders going back decades.

But in a welcome twist, today the Bulletin can reveal one of the city’s long-time developers has abandoned its plans for a 5.5ha property at Robina and granted it to the city.

The move by Robina Group will see the land off Cheltenham Drive form part of the Robina City Parklands, which the Gold Coast City Council has pitched as becoming our very own version of New York’s Central Park.

A parkland for the community in the heart of Robina is long overdue, but to gain even more space, which will go to community benefit, is altogether unexpected and greatly welcomed.

The work of Robina councillor Hermann Vorster, council staff and those at Robina Group must be congratulated.

People come and go in public life but the legacy of this parkland will last for decades as future generations of Gold Coasters flock to its lush, green pastures.

Development has become a particularly hot-button issue in some sectors of the community in recent years.

News of new and expanded parklands and community facilities should come as a relief to those wondering whether there would be any land left in the face of our rapidly expanding population.

With our Broadwater Parklands at Southport and now a city parkland at Robina, the Coast has much to look forward to.