New Gold Coast City Council CEO says the Glitter Strip needs thousands more residents

Despite concerns about traffic congestion, inadequate infrastructure and an increased amount of development, the Gold Coast City Council’s new CEO says the region must brace for a population boom the size of Hobart by 2032.

The new boss of Gold Coast City Council has told residents that ‘growth is good’ and the Glitter Strip needs hundreds of thousands more residents.

Despite concerns about ‘overdevelopment’, rising traffic congestion and inadequate infrastructure, council chief executive officer Tim Baker – who hails from Tasmania – says the Coast must brace for a population boom the size of Hobart by 2032.

Mr Baker who took up his post in February, says the Coast is ‘selling a dream’ and the challenge will be to balance the growth with the laid-back lifestyle new arrivals expect.

“We are a growing city,” he told a Southern Gold Coast Chamber of Commerce breakfast on Thursday.

The Gold Coast City Council’s new chief executive officer, Tim Baker. Picture: Glenn Hampson

“The State Government has set us a target to get to a million people within 10 years.

“The city of Hobart needs to move here within the next 10 years – that’s how big the growth target is in front of us.”

Mr Baker, 40, said people want to come to the Gold Coast because of what the area offered.

“I think growth is good,” he said.

“It’s good because people want to come to the Gold Coast. People like me. They want to come to the Gold Coast because of everything we offer.

“The challenge is, how do we maintain that Gold Coast way of life and still grow at the same time? It’s a challenge that’s before us, and it’s a real challenge.”

The Miami beach coastal walk and Surfers Paradise skyline on the Gold Coast. Picture: Samuel Lindsay

At the breakfast, held at the Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary, Mr Baker said 40 per cent of the Coast’s 650,000-plus residents lived in apartments and pressure would increase for ‘multi-dwelling buildings close to the beach.’

But, he said, some of Australia’s fastest-growing areas included the northern Gold Coast and that Coast locals had to “accept there will be growing pains, and growing pains are OK”.

“But when we get those growing pains, we (have to) address the issues as quickly as we possibly can,” the CEO said.

The proposed extension of the Coast’s multibillion-dollar light rail system from Burleigh Heads to the Gold Coast Airport has deeply divided southern Gold Coast residents, many of whom have voiced fears about construction chaos, environmental damage and worsening traffic snarls.

The Gold Coast City Council’s new CEO, Tim Baker, said residents should accept there will be “growing pains” as the region continues become more and more popular. Picture: Richard Gosling

Mr Baker said the Coast was a large linear city with ‘an over-reliance on cars’ and ‘you would not find a better city anywhere in Australia to put light rail’.

“It’s designed to run mass transport in a straight line,” he said.

“I come from a state that is begging for light rail. I understand there will be some growing pains, I understand that it won’t be easy for us to get that rail in.

“But once we get it in, we will be the envy of Australia.”

Mr Baker said the council was working to broaden the Coast’s economy while continuing to ‘look after and build’ tourism.

Residential housing on the Gold Coast. Picture: Dave Hunt/AAP

Mayor Tom Tate, 63, also spoke at the breakfast, predicting the Coast would have another “huge” film studio within the next five years to complement the Village Roadshow Studios beside Movie World in Oxenford.

He said he had encouraged legendary Australian filmmaker Baz Lurhmann to do the post-production for the recently released Elvis biopic film on the Coast, where the movie starring Tom Hanks and Austin Butler, was also shot in 2020.

“Broadening the economy means our kids don’t have to look to other cities in Australia to pursue their careers, they can do it right here on the Gold Coast,” Mr Tate said.