Currumbin neighbourhood dispute over wealthy resident’s development plan

Residents of a ritzy beachside Gold Coast suburb have been drawn into a bitter neighbourhood dispute over the plan by a Tassie millionaire to develop a sprawling apartment project where a beloved cafe once stood.

Tasmanian tycoon John Fuglsang has put plans forward to the Gold Coast City Council to redevelop the Currumbin Rocks cafe site. Picture: Supplied

A Tasmanian tycoon has upset the apple cart in one of Queensland’s wealthiest neighbourhoods, with plans for a sprawling apartment project on an iconic cafe site riling residents.

John Fuglsang, a multi-millionaire Hobart businessman, wants to redevelop the former Elephant Rock Cafe site at Currumbin Beach into a seven-level luxury unit complex.

Locals are fuming, saying the massive project will be a blight on the beautiful area and potentially destabilise Currumbin Hill which is already rated a high landslip risk.

The proposal has sparked a bitter neighbourhood feud, with security fences erected, CCTV cameras installed and footage captured of Mr Fuglsang allegedly snooping on neighbours - including one shot of the 73-year-old up a ladder on a boundary fence with a camera in hand.

Mr Fuglsang, who made his fortune in the property and shipyard industries, has spent millions buying up properties at Currumbin Beach which is home to some of the Gold Coast’s richest people including lawyers, bankers and business elite.

Tasmanian tycoon John Fuglsang. Picture: Supplied

The Sandy Bay resident splashed $3.4m for the Elephant Rock Cafe in 2018 after spending $2.44m on a neighbouring beachfront home in 2011.

He upset locals when he closed and later demolished the popular cafe, with the site sitting vacant for more than two years.

After recently acquiring another slice of Currumbin Hill, Mr Fuglsang lodged amended plans for the redevelopment, a year after earlier plans were approved by Gold Coast City Council officers following a failed bid by area councillor Gail O’Neill to have the project brought before full council.

Almost 50 locals attended a public meeting last week to voice concerns about the proposed six-unit development.

Friends of Currumbin president Peter Kershaw said it was a “totally inappropriate” development for the area.

“It’s not only an overdevelopment of the site; it’s also an inappropriate design outcome for an area that is prone to slippage,” he said.

More than 50 locals have attended a meeting to voice their opposition to the proposed development.

Mr Kershaw said Currumbin Hill was rated a “high risk” of land slips by the council, with mini-landslides occurring during recent weather events, and there were concerns Mr Fuglsang’s development could worsen the situation.

He said the area had a three-storey height limit but claimed the proposed development would soar up to six storeys.

“Limited” parking in the proposed unit complex would lead to its residents and visitors taking already scarce carparks on the beachfront, Mr Kershaw said - while “you couldn’t swing a cat” in a 20sqm shop planned for the complex’s streetfront to satisfy council planning requirements.

He said the amended plans were so significant they should have been subjected to a fresh development application, while one angry resident has hired a top barrister to try to have the development more rigorously assessed by the council.

But Mr Fuglsang hit back, accusing residents of being “NIMBYs” (not in my back yard).

Asked about his time up a ladder, he responded by saying that one neighbour was taking Supreme Court action against him for “adverse possession of land”.

He said the neighbour, a lawyer, was only worried about the loss of his views.

“It’s about loss of outlook, that’s what this is about,” he said.

Mr Fuglsang said it was a “compliant development” which would be “a wonderful outcome for the area”.

“At the moment, we’ve got an empty site in a prime location,” he said.

“Are we to provide more housing or not? Are we to share Currumbin or not? Look, I don’t want to take anything away from anyone but at the end of the day, we’ve got (with the development) more housing in the area.”

The Elephant Rock Cafe was closed and later demolished after Mr Fuglsang bought the stie. Picture: Supplied

But Mr Fuglsang has lost the first stage of what’s expected to be a protracted battle over the development after the council rejected his bid to have it assessed by council officers as a “code assessable” three-storey project rather than go through the tougher, full council “impact assessable” process.

Council officers found that the new design “includes more than three storeys” and is also now “wider and higher” than previously approved plans, and “this increase in bulk does not minimise the visual impact of the development within the Currumbin headland”.

Officers also raised concerns about “minimal landscaping” to soften the development’s impact, as well as inadequate parking and potential landslide risks.

Mr Fuglsang and his planners were ordered back to the drawing board to provide updated plans, including a revised geotechnical report “confirming that the newly proposed development can achieve a ‘low’ or better level of landslide hazard risk rating.

He has been given until May 14.

The developer told the Sunday Mail that the council would have “a major fight from me” if they tried to make the project impact assessable.

“They have to abide by the law,” he said.

“They can try to make it impact assessable but they’d put up with a major fight from me. I won’t accept it, and I won’t accept it laying down.”