Gold Coast development: Massive blow to tower developers
A leading Gold Coast developer has slammed a controversial plan to block builders from securing the mega projects they propose. SEE THE DETAILS
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GOLD Coast developers will be blocked from securing an automatic height increase for their towers under a new crackdown proposed by city leaders.
Robina-based councillor Hermann Vorster has asked council officers to explore stronger measures used by other local government authorities to stop projects abusing a 50 per cent uplift rule.
That rule allows councillors to consider and approve projects which are up to 50 per cent higher than the City Plan allows if it satisfies certain conditions.
The move has been welcomed by building industry critics while one of the city’s key developers has warned the crackdown was a “huge mistake”.
Robina has a height limit of eight stories but developers seeing previous approvals are now applying for two 14-storey towers.
Fast growing coastal suburbs such as Palm Beach have the 50 per cent uplift test in order “to provide a handbrake on ultimate heights in centre zones”.
But the details of the planning rules remain technical and confusing for protesting residents, and many see it as a given that developers will get increases.
“In Varsity Lakes where we do not have that, if an applicant can satisfy I think an eight-legged test, they can lodge an application and reach for the sky as it were,” Cr Vorster told a planning committee.
“I just want to wrap my head around why it is, this is just my perception, that here on the Gold Coast, we seem to generate a lot of community angst around the application of that handbrake, but in other local government areas they do not.
“I’m just really concerned we don’t have the correct language or community understanding to defend those decisions.”
Planning chair Cameron Caldwell agreed saying council was seeing the end of a very old planning scheme and councillors needed to better communicate future planning changes.
“It was the 2003 scheme that had been amended multiple times. So by 2015 it was 12 years old,” he said.
“And we were seeing case after case after case where the map type was being exceeded in an impact assessment, for example. And the heights were 10 stories in a three-storey zone.”
Cr Vorster gained support for asking officers to report back on other planning models used by councils and how they managed community expectations on building heights.
“What’s the height limit? Eight to 12, which considers the per cent. Now, that’s probably a very blunt way of doing it, because it creates a suggestion that maybe 12 is the baseline,” he said.
Outside the meeting, Cr Vorster when asked for his personal opinion replied: “I’m not convinced the 50 per cent uplift provisions are properly understood or meeting
community expectations.
“But that’s not to say they are worthless because I know of examples where their absence
created a developer’s free-for-all.
“My point is that if there are better models out there to deal with the fact the State forces us to consider applications above mapped height, we ought to take a serious and urgent look at
them.”
HomeCorp Constructions boss Ron Bakir slammed the proposed crackdown, warning it was the wrong move given the high demand for property and low availability.
It is critical that this is considered thoroughly considering the lack of supply we current have but personally I think it would be a mistake to make it tougher given we do not have enough supply as it is.” he said.
“Everyone wants to live on the Gold Coast, international migration is growing and there are 2 million applicants to enter Australia right now.
“This would be a mistake because it is tough enough to either rent or buy and many projects already cannot get off the ground because of the costs so this would simply amplify the problems.”
Gold Coast Community Association head John Hicks welcomed the council’s push.
“Council are to be commended for exploring these options and we fully agree it’s a system which has been consistently abused,” he said.
“Unfortunately we find developers regularly exploiting the flexibility of the performance-based planning scheme to gain approvals which are totally inconsistent with the City Plan as read and agreed by the community.
“These criteria need to be better-drafted to tighten it right up because it is nebulous and there is scope for developers to put in proposals which exploit the uncertainty.”
Originally published as Gold Coast development: Massive blow to tower developers
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