REMEMBER WHEN

GOLD COAST BULLETIN Wednesday, September 4, 2013

THE Gold Coast’s skyline was about to undergo its biggest change, with city councillors embracing unrestricted height limits for buildings from Broadbeach north through Surfers Paradise to Southport.

Councillors met privately, with officers to determine ‘‘go zones’’ for skyscrapers and ‘‘no-go zones’’ to preserve waterfront and parklands.

Southport was predicted to boom from the relaxation of building heights as the council pushes for it to emerge as the city’s true CBD.

Super towers were planned to encroach on the central area of the ageing estate at Chevron Island, while Budds Beach, Tedder Ave and parkland in Broadbeach

were all to be preserved.

Under the City Plan 2015, the building relaxations were also anticipated to impact on the ugly southern urban gateway along the Gold Coast Highway from Miami to Broadbeach, where height limits would increase from two storeys to five, allowing residential apartments to be built above roadside shops.

The existing town plan allowed only central Surfers Paradise to have unrestricted height which permitted the approval of the 78-floor Q1

building, 77-level Soul tower and 70-storey Circle on Cavill.

Council principal architect and urban designer Finn Jones briefed councillors on what city planners hope would be the preferred future skyline. Rather than creating an ‘‘urban wall’’ of new towers as in some emerging cities in China, Hong Kong and the Middle East, a more random mix of heights is planned.

The City Plan came into effect in 2016 and has consistently proved controversial over tower sizes.