Gold Coast development: Controversial Main Beach tower blocked again by court over City Plan
A developer’s push to build a controversial tower in Main Beach has been knocked back by the courts for a second time. SEE WHY
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A developer’s push to build a controversial tower in Main Beach has been knocked back by the courts for a second time.
Upan Company Pty Ltd have been wanting to be build a 20-storey high rise on Main Beach Parade and Woodroffe Ave since 2018 but are yet to get approval for the design they want.
Last week the Supreme Court in Brisbane knocked back their attempt to have a second design approved.
Upan previously gained approval from the Gold Coast City Council in 2018 to build the Ovation – a 20-storey tower which consisted of a mix of two and three bedroom apartments.
Two years later work had not started on the tower and Upan submitted new designs for approval.
The changes – which included a height increase of 3.75m, reduction of set backs and change to the external facade and design – were knocked back by the council.
Upan went to the Planning and Environment Court who also knocked back the new plans in September last year.
Judge Richard Jones ruled the tower did not comply with the City Plan because it would “crowd” the streets.
He said in this judgment the building was not within the City Plan as it did not have a podium.
When Judge Jones knocked back the changes to the tower, Main Beach president Sue Donovan described it as a “win for the community”.
Upan was still not happy with the ruling and took the fight to the Supreme Court.
Last week their latest bid was also overruled.
Justice Philip Morrison wrote in his judgment: “The approved development had a stepped building form, which might explain why the Council gave its approval.
“The proposed development offered neither.
“Upan’s approach seems unnecessarily narrow in that respect. Justice Morrison also noted that “assessment benchmarks” would not be able to be achieved by imposing development conditions.
The most recent court decision means that Upan will either have to go back to its original plans or seek approval from the council on an entirely new building design.
September 2021: Court blocks controversial tower
ANTI-development activists and the city’s most powerful planning boss say a court’s decision to reject the construction of a 20-storey tower in Main Beach is a “line-in-the-sand” moment for developers looking to muscle in on the Gold Coast’s booming property market.
The Planning and Environment Court this week knocked back an appeal by Southport developer Brian Heran to build the controversial Ovation tower on the corner of Woodroofe Ave and Main Beach Parade.
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Judge Richard Jones ruled the tower did not comply with the City Plan because it would “crowd” the streets.
Council had previously approved the tower in 2018 but had rejected changes proposed by Mr Heran.
The rejection comes years of mounting concern by community groups about the Gold Coast becoming open slather for developers to build giant towers that defy the City Plan, by in height and density.
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Towers in suburbs such as Main Beach and Palm Beach have been lightning rods for the criticism as city leaders struggled to accommodate an influx of residents.
Main Beach Association president Sue Donovan, who has long fought “over-the-top developments”, said Judge Jones’ decision was a “win for the community”.
“It is most unusual for the court to dismiss a developer’s appeal, and the grounds for doing so are significant – that the application did not conform with the City Plan and did not fit in with the local character,” she said.
“It is our hope that this case will create an important precedent and encourage council to reject future development applications that are grossly non-compliant with the City Plan.”
Council planning committee chairman Cameron Caldwell said the court’s decision vindicated the city’s opposition to the project and ensured Main Beach would secure a better quality of development.
“The built form was too dense and too bulky for the proposed location in a medium-density zone,” he said.
“This is a high profile beachfront site and we aspire to the highest-quality development outcomes to contribute positively to Main Beach because the community expects us to make decisions that are consistent with the City Plan and the court decision endorses our strong approach on this application.”
The court’s decision is the latest twist in a five-year saga to develop the site.
Mr Heran filed plans in November 2016 for a 50-storey tower on the 1260 sqm site he bought from receivers in 2012.
The 160m tower was, at the time, the tallest proposed for the suburb, and was to have 143 units spread across 43 levels, plus a six-storey, mixed-use podium and would replace two ageing fibro buildings.
Council refused the project in 2017 because of its density and design.
The 20-storey version of the project was refiled in early 2018 and approved by the council on October 22 that year.
It is one of several new tower projects that set off a wave of opposition from Main Beach residents.
The Main Beach Association has consistently called for the council to slow the wave of development in the area, arguing its infrastructure could not cope with the significant population increase.
In July, the association created a report tipping the suburb’s population would quadruple within 20 years if the current level of development was sustained.
The figures were based on what is allowable under council’s light rail overlap map and influenced by the surge during Covid from developers amalgamating sites for super towers with luxury apartments.
Construction has begun on several residential towers in recent weeks, including Ignite Project’s 23-storey Monaco and Andrews Projects’ 15-storey Dune Main Beach.
There is more to come.
In August, billionaire Tony Fung lodged plans to build two high-rises on Main Beach Parade at the Pacific Point site after abandoning plans for a hotel.
Prolific Brisbane-based developer Spyre Group bought a Main Beach Parade site, which was previously the Lark cafe, with plans to build an 18-storey luxury tower.
Developer Greg Eastment has unveiled plans for a $100m, 17-storey tower on the Four Corners site, also on Main Beach Parade.
INSIDE THE JUDGEMENT
THE Ovation project was knocked back in the Planning and Environment Court this week because proposed changes to the tower were not compliant with the City Plan.
In his judgment released on Tuesday, Judge Richard Jones said: “The proposed development did not incorporate a form of podium and tower construction which resulted in a finding that as proposed, it would not sit comfortably within the existing streetscape and would tend to ‘crowd’ Main Beach Parade and possibly Woodroffe Avenue.”
Upan Company had been given the go ahead by the Gold Coast City Council in October 2018 to build a 20 storey tower made up of two and three-bedroom units.
It then tried to make changes, including reducing the height to 19-storeys, reducing apartments from 55 to 50, and alterations to set backs, balconies and internal floor plans.
Despite reducing the number of storeys, the new plans would have increased the height of Ovation by 3.75m and the number of bedrooms from 133 to 145.
The council refused those changes so Upan Co took the matter to the Planning and Environment Court.
Despite rejecting the Upan appeal, Judge Jones also said there were some “superior outcomes” of the new designs, including a mix of apartments and external features that were “far more attractive” than the development approved.
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