WESTO’S WORLD
THE INSIDE WORD ON NOBBY
WHAT will the light rail corridor do to the Broadbeach-toBurleigh skyline? The proposed 12-storey Nobby Beach towers have sent shockwaves. The reality is this won’t become Surfers.
Planning insiders at council say The Oxley and The Frederick buildings – which the developer hopes to complete by 2025, a year after the trams start operating – will not get approval.
When councillors ticked off the City Plan for this area, it was to preserve a three-storey limit. Your best guide is to watch a council video promoting the 2015 draft City Plan – you can see a photograph taken from it here.
Heading south along the Gold Coast Highway past Broadbeach, the cut-off point for unlimited height is Peerless Ave, opposite Pacific Fair.
Given it’s a performancebased plan, developers by presenting attractive projects can get a 50 per cent uplift. So at best here, that amounts to just over four storeys.
Council is currently preparing City Plan major updates two and three. Building heights were reduced after town hall protest meetings last year at Palm Beach and Biggera Waters.
Broadbeach-to-Nobby Beach is yet to face the same scrutiny. It will occur with major update four. The reasoning is the council needs to take account of current light rail consultation.
A city-wide survey will be followed by feedback from groups of 15 people in neighbourhoods.
Area councillor Pauline Young told your columnist: “People who live on that corridor will have their say. They will be people who I guess have a very balanced view of it all, not just ‘we don’t want any redevelopment or urbanisation or renewal of the area’.
“There is (City Plan) major updates two and three that protects a big part of the eastern side of the Gold Coast Highway. But when you get down to that Nobby precinct, there’s quite a few, say, catalyst sites, that may benefit from some good neighbourhood planning rather than saying a flat out ‘no’ to any height there.”
Let’s look at the proposal for the 12-storey buildings. It offers 217 car spaces, less than the 286 under the City Plan. The developer will argue that number is well in excess because a tram station will be there due to light rail.
Several other large sites, some on the western side, could also be developed. Let’s say council gets an application that has height but 400 underground car parks, each valued at $50,000.
“There has to be some give and take,” Cr Young says.
“If they are going, ‘give us 400 underground car parks’ we need to be able to say to them ‘can we give them some additional height’, but just do it as a neighbourhood plan, where just this particular area may benefit from some height because the city is certainly not going to build 400 underground car parks at Nobbys as it sits now.”
Remember, residents can influence the council by having their say in the next few months.
Council needs to know what is acceptable for residents and businesses, so redevelopment can be assessed and ticked off when the highway is being ripped up for light rail.
Nobby Beach is going to suffer pain making way for the trams. The surgery for this makeover must be reduced, limited to the next three years. Any longer will be fatal for small businesses.