CENTRE’S LENGTHY BATTLE
It’s popular today but it took Harbour Town 12 years and a long legal struggle to become a reality.
HARBOUR Town is today one of the Gold Coast’s most popular shopping centres.
Having been expanded in recent years, it draws thousands of people each day and is the heart of the Biggera Waters community.
The Bulletin last week explored the 150-year history of the suburb, which ballooned from farmland into one of the city’s most desired addresses.
The 1980s brought with it a development boom that culminated in a proposal by Lewis Land Corporation to build Harbour Town.
The initial plan, pitched in late 1987, called for an 80ha town centre that would become home to 80,000 people and a shopping centre at its heart.
However, opposition to the project was swift and massive. Then-council planning boss Lex Bell, for one, declared it would “destroy the city’s strategic plan and future planning of the area”.
It was the final days of Sir Joh Bjelke-petersen’s reign as Queensland premier and his Nationals government and Local Government Minister Russ Hinze was accused by the Gold Coast City Council of agreeing to the rezoning of the Biggera Waters area for the centre, despite no plans being submitted by the developer to either council or the state.
The council was given only 50 days to set planning conditions for the site, something
Alderman Bell said was “physically impossible because no one will give us a copy of the plan”.
“They (the state government) have not said no, they just said they would pass the request on to the developer.
“The developers are saying they will consider the request. We are dealing with a phantom project and the only explanation I can see is that there are no plans and the state government decided to give the rezoning in a vacuum.
“The only other possible explanation is that the plans are now being changed.’’
Lewis Land director Deric Finney insisted the planned town centre was “far beyond the reach of conventional town and strategic planning’’.
“For that reason we felt fully justified in taking the proposal direct to the state’s principle planning authority, the Queensland government,’’ he said.
By 1989, the government announced it would move ahead with the rezoning despite opposition from the council and business community.
Alderman Bell, by then Mayor, said he was disappointed but not surprised, while Gold Coast Small Business Association president Greg Rix declared the public consultation period a “farce”.
“The thing will go ahead,’’ he said.
“It’s a farce. The Minister is well aware council is against the proposal, small business is against it and the ratepayers are also against it.”
The situation took another turn in March 1990.
The Nationals government was gone and Labor’s Wayne Goss was in power.
His Cabinet overturned the rezoning approval of Harbour Town, by this point a $300m project.
“If Lewis Land Corp wants to proceed with the development, it still has the right to go to the Gold Coast City Council in the proper way,’’ Deputy Premier Tom Burns said.
“The public could then have its rightful say through objections and local government appeal procedures.’’
The project appeared to be dead in the water, but by late 1994 the Goss government again changed its tune, and Local Government Minister Terry Mackenroth pushed through a “Ministerial amendment’’ that avoided the need for the developer to go through council’s town planning process.
The Harbour Town Act was its own special legislation governing the creation of the complex and surrounding development zone.
Lewis Land announced a partnership with billionaire Bob Ell’s Leda Holdings, but the deal soon fell apart.
It took another three years for Lewis Land to announce it would finally begin construction on the $100m first stage of the complex.
But the long-running saga had one final twist. In late 1997, retail giant Westfield took the project to the Planning and Environment Court, arguing it did not comply with the definition of a regional shopping centre.
Westfield at the time was trying to get its own complex approved at Helensvale and was also taking the council to court over it.
Judge Tony Skoien ruled against Westfield and cleared the final legal hurdle to allow Harbour Town to be built.
Construction finally began in mid-1998, with Lewis Land announcing a major point of difference between Harbour Town and the city’s existing shopping meccas – it would be a direct factory outlet.