Gold Coast development: Light rail, trains and Greenheart projects needed to solve city’s growth pains
The state government has created a “daft” rather than proper draft regional plan because it fails to commit funding on major transport upgrades for the Gold Coast, warn councillors.
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The State Government has created a “daft” rather than proper draft regional plan because it fails to commit funding on major transport upgrades for the Gold Coast, warn councillors.
The warning along with calls to reopen talks with the council and the community occurs against a backdrop of the plan showing the Coast will grower much bigger than expected.
Council officers say in a report that there has been no financial commitment to key projects which are needed to support the city’s growth.
Officers acknowledged light rail stage 3 was being built and Stage 4 was in planning. Coomera Connector Stage 1 was “committed”.
But there was no commitment to heavy rail to the southern border.
“The key projects that have not been addressed, include the critical provision of water, waste and energy facilities, acceleration of Greenheart (at Robina) and significant cultural infrastructure,” the report reads.
New population projections under the draft South East Regional Plan update show the Coast has been allocated an increase of 381,200 residents between 2021 and 2046 — representing a total resident population of 1,015,000.
An additional 158,100 dwellings will be needed taking the total to 429,500.
Council will on Monday make its submission to the region plan.
City officers have been critical in their review of the draft plan – and Councillors Hermann Vorster and Mark Hammel scathing in their comments.
Cr Vorster said: “My message to them is simple - provide this missing information, tick off on an infrastructure plan, and reopen consultation.
“If they don’t, the State has social license and must accept full responsibility for the chaos on our roads. Right now it’s not a draft - but a ‘daft’ SEQ Regional Plan.”
Cr Hammel, the city’s planning chair, said it was obvious from his recent talks with community groups on council’s own future City Plan they “were not interested in tokenistic consultation”.
City officers in the new few months will frame what sort of consultation would work on City Plan to avoid mistakes made the State with its rushed regional plan.
“They (the residents) want to be involved in consultation and have a genuine say in what their area and the city looks like,” he said.
“We know the situation that we need to accommodate a population of one million people, to do that we have to deliver 160,000 more dwellings in the city.
“How do we accommodate that population, but how do we ensure what people are looking for from the Gold Coast in terms of lifestyle and raising a family is not negatively impacted for future generations.”
The State’s reaction to its own planning review with the draft regional plan was “very disappointing”.
“It has been rushed, the time frames for local governments to respond have been incredibly short if not impossible,” Cr Hammel said.
“Their own document lacks a huge amount of detail that we are told we won’t get to see until the new regional plan is endorsed.”
Cr Hammel said the City in its response had attempted to ensure key focus areas for the Coast were included with appropriate detail on infrastructure by the State.
Cr Vorster in the Evandale Chamber refused to vote in support of the regional plan, saying the Government had “trashed” the council’s own City Plan changes after five rounds of community consultation.
“Now, the state government junked that plan, absolutely trashed that plan, and they trashed, I think, any community buy-in with developing future city plans. Because why would a member of the community contribute to a consultation process if the government, after five occasions, was prepared to junk their feedback,” he said.
Cr Vorster said the Southeast Queensland Regional Plan was the foundation upon which our future City Plan would be built but contained no certainty on infrastructure.
Deputy Premier and State Development Minister Steven Miles said work with councils was continuing.
“As part of the plan, Gold Coast Council is required to submit a housing supply statement including Council’s plan for delivering increased supply and diversity of choice (and) I look forward to reading their submission,” he said.
“More people will call the Gold Coast home with 381,200 extra people expected through to 2046 (and) who can blame them. The Gold Coast is a great place to live, work and raise a family.
“The population is growing, but it is also changing, with the number of one-person households will increase substantially from 23.4 per cent in 2021 to 40.5 per cent in 2046.
“To protect our great Queensland lifestyle, we need to plan for this growth, and we need councils to work with us because this plan helps put in place a framework that councils can use to deliver more homes over the coming decade.”
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