Gold Coast development: Palm Beach tower sparks tense planning debate

Another beachfront tower is set to be approved on the Gold Coast - it’s sparked a bitter debate among city councillors.

ANOTHER beachfront tower is about to be approved at Palm Beach sparking a stormy debate among councillors.

An officer’s report to council’s planning committee meeting yesterday ticked off on a code assessable application for a nine-storey residential tower on The Esplanade, about 1km south of Tallebudgera Creek.

INSIDE PALM BEACH’S CONTROVERSIAL DEVELOPMENT BOOM

Several sites planned for high rise towers at Palm Beach on the Gold Coast.

All councillors at committee apart from Peter Young voted for the application which is likely to be approved at a full council meeting next Tuesday.

Helensvale-based councillor William Owen-Jones told the planning meeting: “To my understanding, they satisfy the height conditions of the City Plan. They don’t satisfy the density, but they have got an oversupply of car parks.

“We have the height right, the car parking right, the density in terms of noncompliance is a little bit academic. The only way they can comply with the density is if we remove three or four levels of the building.

HAVE YOUR SAY ON NEW PALM BEACH TOWER

The new nine story tower planned for Palm Beach on the Gold Coast on The Esplanade.

Committee chair Cameron Caldwell asked area councillor Daphne McDonald, who could attend the meeting but not vote, what were her concerns about the impact of the density.

“Every application that we’ve seen so far is two or three times the density. So you know you’ve got all these extra bedrooms, they end up being rentals. We are seeing right around the city where cars are being parked on the street,” Cr McDonald said.

But Cr Caldwell pressed for more “actual impacts” of density rather than “technicalities”.

“Well Cr McDonald we are not here to judge whether people rent or own in our city. We welcome everyone. So in terms of planning outcomes, what’s the impact,” he said.

Cr McDonald replied: “The impact is there will be extra cars within that development.”

Cr Peter Young, who supported Cr McDonald, referred councillors to a graphic on their agenda pages showing at least another five similar towers were approved in the area.

“We are going to end up with a wall there of buildings that are all the same height, maybe four, five, six metres apart from each other. It’s a very consistent look. I would question the merit of that ultimately,” he said.

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The site of the tower as it appears today.

But Cr Caldwell when winding up the debate, remarked that “all I’ve heard from Cr McDonald is there’s more parked cars”.

“So again, I’m not hearing an overwhelming concern about the pressures of people enjoying life in a three-bedroom apartment on the beachfront at Palm Beach. Right, someone want to move the item,” he said.

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Deputy Mayor Donna Gates said it was important to understand that council officers were working off a performance-based planning scheme where the State Government sought 80 per cent of new developments to be in infill areas as opposed to greenfield sites.

“Therefore there is flexibility available when the officers consider these applications. They (developers) are always going to push the barriers because they can, and because it's a code assessment we are limited in what we can do,” she said.

Councillor Daphne McDonald. Picture: Glenn Hampson.

“In this instance Cr McDonald has ensured there’s sufficient parking, it’s a building I’m sure most people would want to live in right on the beachfront at Palm Beach. And Palm Beach is transitioning, there is no doubt that about.”