Gold Coast development: 98.5 per cent of development approvals made under delegation since 2012

A LEADING Gold Coast councillor has called for the development approval process to be made more transparent after new data revealed how few projects are actually voted on by city leaders.

ONLY 337 of the 23,000 development applications approved in the past five years were green-lit by councillors — and a senior official is not happy about it.

New data shows 98.5 per cent of all approvals submitted to the council between July 2012 and June this year were approved under delegation and not voted on by a majority of councillors.

The figure is higher than that of Logan City Council where 90 per cent of its 2011 projects in the past year were approved under delegation.

EYE-WATERING NUMBER OF COAST DEVELOPMENTS

98.8 per cent of development approvals in 2017-18 were granted under delegation. (AAP Image/Brendan Esposito)

Long-serving Palm Beach councillor Daphne McDonald said she was concerned about how few projects actually went before city leaders.

“I feel that with some of these developments the community is entitled to see how the decisions are being made and how council comes to a determination of either approving or refusing it,” she said.

WHEN COAST’S NEXT SUPERTOWER WILL OPEN

Councillor Daphne McDonald. Photo: Jerad Williams

“It must be quite transparent in that respect — it will let people understand how a determination is made.

“When things are done under delegation there is no agenda item, the public cannot go online and see the decision and read all the information.

“In recent times there has been a heightening of awareness of these issues in the community as the applications which have been approved in the past few years are only now starting to rise out of the ground.”

Delegated decisions are not made by the council’s planning committee. They are done either by bureaucrats or by a small group including the mayor, chief executive, planning chairman and area councillors.

The bulk of these are minor applications such as carports, fences and extensions to existing houses.

Deputy Gold Coast Mayor Donna Gates. Photo: Jerad Williams

Deputy Mayor Donna Gates rejected Cr McDonad’s concerns, arguing the approvals system had become more transparent on the back of changes brought in after the controversial delegated authority approval of the $1.2 billion Spirit tower in September 2015.

“Councillors have always only ever seen less than two per cent of applications,” she said.

“When Spirit was approved I requested a process be put into place so any major project which came before council would always come to committee.

The delegation process was reformed after the approval of the $1.2 billion Spirit tower in 2015. Supplied

“Anything done under delegation gets the level of attention it deserves and people should be aware all provisions relating to conflicts of interests apply to this process too.”

The figures come after growing concern from central and southern Gold Coast residents about the approval of controversial projects along the current and future route of the light rail.

They include a 20-storey absolute beachfront tower at Main Beach and a 25-storey highrise on Mermaid Beach’s Peerless Ave which will overlook “Millionaire’s Row” itself, Hedges Ave.

Artist impression of Mahala, a 25-storey high-rise tower by developer Pinda which is planned for Peerless Ave, Mermaid Beach

SUBSCRIBE TO THE BULLETIN AND GET A FITBIT

The Main Beach project was passed by full council. However, the Mermaid Beach proposal was approved under special delegation.

The tower has already gone to market with construction to begin next year.

Opposition to the Main Beach project was so strong it led Mayor Tom Tate to announce plans to amend the City Plan.

Cr Tate said a future amendment to the plan may place restrictions on the height and density of some proposed absolute beachfront developments in the Main Beach area.

Gold Coast development application decisions:

2012-13 - 2663 (51 by council, 2612 by delegation)

2013-14 - 3108 (45 by council, 3063 by delegation)

2014-15 - 3855 (50 by council, 3805 by delegation)

2015-16 - 4360 (75 by council, 4285 by delegation)

2016-17 - 4697 (67 by council, 4630 by delegation)

2017-18 - 4353 (49 by council, 4304 by delegation)

Total: 23,036 applications

Total of decisions made under delegation - 98.54 per cent