CITY BANE A WORLDWIDE PROBLEM

THE Gold Coast is groaning under a ballooning population as migrants with fat wallets from southern states elbow each other for declining real estate. Everybody has an opinion, but it is hardly a new-age problem. Population growth has been a challenge for global cities such as London, New York, Hong Kong, Beijing, Delhi and Singapore, among many others, for 100 years.

By the end of the decade Delhi is expected to exceed Tokyo as the world’s largest megalopolis. It has morphed so fast experts cannot accurately determine the true population in the inner-city, guessing from 30 million to 60 million.

Brazil powerhouse São Paulo increased 10-fold over 75 years, Tokyo welcomed 500,000 people a year from 1950 to 1990, Mexico City more than 300,000, and South Guangdong in China swelled from 5.5 million residents to 32 million in 20 years from 1990.

Africa is not immune either. In fact, by 2100, 13 of the world’s 20 largest urban areas will be in Africa — up from just two. It will house more than a third of the world’s population. Good luck to whoever is tasked with overseeing that.

The United Nations forecasts twothirds of people will live in urban areas by 2050. That total could include another 2.5 billion people.

In short, the population boom is happening everywhere. That does not lessen or detract from the pain being felt on the Gold Coast as residents live the realities of housing shortages, inflation and density. However, it means we must find a solution.

The state government rejected the council’s proposed amendments to the City Plan, which included reducing density and height limits in certain areas. The government says the council needs to focus on higher density living around big-ticket infrastructure such as the light rail.

Brisbane reasons that the world’s biggest powerhouses navigated population booms by building key transport projects, supported by higher-density housing. It says it would be folly to limit development around those transport corridors and build elsewhere, where infrastructure upgrades and services would be required to follow.

Of course, as the council discovered firsthand, residents already living in those suburbs earmarked for condensed housing do not always want their neighbourhoods transformed into mini-mega cities.

The message to ratepayers, prospective homebuyers and investors must be consistent. Like it did for The Spit masterplan, this newspaper previously called for the government, council and city stakeholders to conduct a population summit to find a consensus. After years of inaction and squabbling, there is now uniform vision for The Spit.

Council scoffed at the idea of a City Plan summit at the time, saying it was its role to sort out. It hasn’t and years later both tiers of government are no closer to a resolution. Time is ticking and this impasse cannot continue.