Palm Beach’s latest high rise: a nursing home by the surf

Council is poised to approve a new eight level tower planned for a prime beachfront location. But it won’t contain regular units.

GOLD Coast City Council is poised to approve an eight-level tower for high-care nursing home patients on the beachfront at Palm Beach.

But some councillors have voiced concerns about the lack of car parks for visitors, increased traffic and the carer-patient numbers.

A majority of councillors at a planning committee meeting on Wednesday backed an officer’s recommendation to approve the 147-bedroom residential care facility. It will be built by Regis Aged Care Pty Ltd on a 3304sq m site on The Esplanade and Gold Coast Highway.

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Palm Beach proposed high rise nursing home site location.

An officer’s report said the development underwent changes after the public notification period. The original 11-storey building was reduced to eight levels.

Palm Beach-based councillor Daphne McDonald asked officers for a breakdown for staffing as it affected the development’s 52 proposed car spaces.

An officer replied: “The maximum is 32 staff and that’s at 4.30pm, that’s the peak time. It relates to the overlay of day and evening staff.”

The final number of staff would be determined by the amount of federal funding based on level of care at the high-care facility, he said.

“The number of staff significantly reduces after 4.30. It falls back to 20 people on site after that,” he added.

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Land at the rear of the development site.

Cr McDonald told colleagues: “Now you can see my concerns. Twelve care staff for 147 bedrooms.”

But committee chair Cameron Caldwell reminded Cr McDonald that council could only introduce changes under the City Plan.

“That’s a federal issue about how they staff their premises,” he said. “We’re looking at car parking, so can we bring it (the debate) back to how it affects what we are doing.”

Cr McDonald maintained the car spaces were not enough for such a big development.

“We have eight levels of care and here you are looking at 12 staff. There is very little on-street car parking, along the Gold Coast Highway and Nineteenth Avenue. With aged care you have a lot of visitors and doctors coming in.”

But officers explained that similar facilities in Brisbane or interstate had far less car parking, between 37 and 21 spaces depending on the location for the same-size facility.

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Aerial of the proposed high rise nursing home development site.

Helensvale-based city councillor William Owen-Jones told Cr McDonald the options available were either to reduce the number of floors or add another basement level of parking and he considered neither to be reasonable.

Deputy Mayor Donna Gates, who had for several years cared for her father in a high-care facility, said it was unfortunate but few families visited the elderly which meant there would not be a high demand for car spaces.

Burleigh-based councillor Pauline Young agreed with Cr Gates.

Her experience in health care before entering council was about only 10 per cent of families “at any particular time” were regular visitors to high-care patients.

“There’s always (spare) car spaces,” Cr Young said.

Patients who required less care on wards would have a lower number of carers, she said.

Cr Young said it was not up to council to determine nursing numbers, but it was common for three nurses to be staffed for up to 60 patients.

“Going back over this and having read it at length, I was actually quite impressed with the numbers presented there,” she said.