SALE OF CARPARK MIGHT TURN OUT RATHER SHORT-SIGHTED

Gold Coast City Council may come to rue the day they decided to cash in on valuable Surfers Paradise site

AS a farmer’s wife I feel I have the credentials to comment on the issue of selling the farm to fund the future.

When you’re dealing with Mother Nature’s cruel blows it is sometimes tempting to sell up, cash in and try the next shiny thing.

But once the storm has passed and the lure of the quick buck has faded, you realise there’s often more to be gained by staying the course and rising above the immediate dilemma.

This week the Gold Coast City Council decided to sell the metaphorical farm to pay for future infrastructure.

In this case the “farm” is the Bruce Bishop carpark, a 1640-space facility that was built on land gifted to the council back in 1938 by Charles Joseph Hicks, who instructed it be preserved as a recreational reserve.

The decision of full council was passed with just four dissenting votes – those of Crs Dawn Crichlow, Peter Young, Gary Baildon and Daphne McDonald. Gary Baildon, the area councillor, was furious and asked the mayor “Does this mean the council will now look to sell all public carparks?”

It’s a valid question – what else is on the table for a council keen to cash in its chips? And what happens when there’s nothing left to sell?

Mayor Tom Tate spoke to Channel Seven shortly after the council decision, assuring residents the sale will help “keep rates low”.

“It’s a wonderful day, we will transform this asset into a wonderful building,” the mayor told the TV reporter.

What the council has decided to do is cash in the 1600 low-cost car spaces, public park and bus transit centre for the lure of a potential $100 million windfall, which the mayor says will help fund the next stage of the Evandale Cultural Centre, a green pedestrian bridge at Chevron Island, a second bridge at Isle of Capri and extra carparks at Chevron Island. The council will require the buyer to retain 740 public car spaces and bus facilities.

But what the council has not conditioned is the cost of those public car spaces for users like you and me.

The Bruce Bishop Carpark currently costs users just $9 a day. And yet according to Mayor Tate it is under-utilised. In fact, he told councillors, at 10am on the day of the decision there were just 345 cars in the carpark. In the mayor’s mind this slow Wednesday at the Bruce Bishop was adequate justification for depriving the city of 860 public car spaces in the future.

Surfers Paradise MP John Paul Langbroek conceded yesterday there was little he could do to reverse the council decision, but questioned the mayor’s claim that because he was returned with 74 per cent of the vote he had a “mandate” to sell the asset.

“I don’t think there was any community consultation on this,” Mr Langbroek told me. “People often say ‘I’ve got a mandate because I won the last election’ but this really brings into question the mandate.

“I’m reflecting on what most people in my electorate think and that is if you’re going to widen roads and build bigger bridges it flies in the face of common sense that you’re going to have less parking when you get to the destination.”

Agree or disagree with the council decision, I see some immediate problems.

Will the council go ahead with the sale if it cannot raise the money councillors think the site is worth?

Where will people park during the lengthy redevelopment process?

What will the council do if the new owner decides to hike parking fees well beyond the current $9/day rate? Why would anyone feel confident gifting public open space to a council which ignores the wishes of a generous benefactor?

Did the decision consider the parking relaxations granted to developers in the past, predicated on the parking surplus in the Bruce Bishop carpark?

Did the council consider the impact on Surfers Paradise businesses that are already struggling to stay open due to traffic congestion, challenging retail conditions and parking restrictions?

The mayor says it was fiscally responsible decision but I can’t help but wonder, if it’s worth $100 million today, what will this prime site be worth in the future?

alice@gormanmedia.com.au