Gold Coast City Plan feedback: stunning requests from residents

Council is being warned to rethink how it creates the City Plan after residents concerned about high rise development put forward a stunning amount of requests.

COUNCIL is being warned to rethink how it creates the City Plan after residents concerned about high rise development put forward more than 14,000 specific changes.

The regular council committee round of meetings was delayed today as councillors met at City Hall for an extended briefing on the 1000-page report prepared by officers on the extended community consultation.

More than 200 members of Palm Beach community packed the Share and Care Centre for a meeting regarding future development and changes to the City Plan. Picture: Glenn Hampson.

Meanwhile, Community Alliance leader John Hicks was briefing residents at the high rise hot spot of Palm Beach, urging them to attend tomorrow’s planning committee meeting.

Division Six candidate Brooke Patterson, who has met with residents in the northern suburbs of Labrador and Chirn Park where it has been proposed to remove low density zonings, said the extraordinary feedback called for change in council’s management approach.

“No one is doubting whether the process was technically proficient, but was it effective,” she said.

“By the time council allowed input from residents, it had already prepared what would happen for residents’ own backyards, the places they live, the homes and neighbourhoods they had chosen to raise their families.”

Victoria had a much more effective process in the popular and established suburbs of St Kilda, Prahan and Geelong where planning started with a clean slate — engaging community and building the plan based on the feedback, rather than just showing it once all the work had been done, she said.

The Coast’s version where the City Plan proposal was dumped at the eleventh hour was ultimately far more costly and counter-productive, she added.

Community Alliance leader John Hicks at a City Plan meeting. Picture: Glenn Hampson.

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Mr Hicks said he understood council officers were working overtime to process

the large number of submissions received and prepare a 1000-page report for council.

“Across the 1203 submissions received there were 14,399 specific submission points,” he said. The last round attracted only 78 submissions.

“The Community Alliance is concerned that the sheer number of submissions, the high detail and complexity of some, and the tight time frame imposed on council officers may result in a less than thorough consideration of all submissions,” Mr Hicks said.

Councillors will be required to make informed decisions on hundreds of recommendations across 34 amendment items, including several highly debated issues, by full council on Friday, he said.

“The council must decide on an extended time frame to fully understand, deliberate, debate and properly decide how it should proceed to the next stage,” Mr Hicks said.

Gold Coast City Council candidate Brooke Patterson calling for changes in how the City Plan is managed.

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“In the interests of full accountability the Community Alliance requests that councillors accept that the only proper and responsible course of action is to extend the timeline for the planning committee and full council consideration of the planning officers’ report into January 2020, when the council meeting cycle resumes.

“To do otherwise and rush these crucial decisions through by 4-6 December would make a mockery of the public consultation process and the high level of community input.

“It would also seem to be contrary to the Local Government Act and Councillor Code of Conduct requirements for proper and ethical decision-making.”