Surfers skyline creeps north to The Spit as council moves to approve Main Beach tower

MAIN Beach residents say Surfers Paradise skyline will creep ever further north after a 20-storey building was green-lighted by council despite 120 objections against it.

Artist impressions of a proposed Main Beach tower put forward by the Winten Property Group. Picture: Supplied by Gold Coast City Council

MAIN Beach residents are warning the Surfers Paradise skyline will creep north to the southern end of The Spit following a decision by council’s planning committee to green-light a 20-storey building.

They also believe an approval, when the matter goes before the full council next Tuesday, will mean the end of quality high-rises surrounded by pools and landscaped gardens in the exclusive suburb.

The new Main Beach tower. Picture: Supplied by Gold Coast City Council

Despite more than 120 objections to the proposal by developer Hapsburg, many from residents in four buildings near the site, most councillors at Wednesday’s committee meeting ticked off on an officer’s recommendation to approve the project on a 1261sq m block in Main Beach Parade.

Main Beach Association leader David Hutley told the Bulletin: “Along the beachfront from the (Southport) surf club to Narrowneck, it will become high rise. The densities which we had with a medium zone are gone.”

Councillors Cameron Caldwell (left) and Hermann Vorster (right) spoke in favour of the project. Photo by Richard Gosling

Mr Hutley listened to councillors’ comments from the public gallery this week and was furious with council planning chairman Cameron Caldwell and Robina councillor Hermann Vorster, who strongly supported the application.

Cr Caldwell spoke in favour of the project after area councillor Gary Baildon and Hinterland councillor Peter Young argued the 55-unit development was three-and-a-half times the maximum density for the area under the City Plan.

Cr Caldwell told the meeting: “Well, it’s fair to say that the original character of the landscape in Main Beach was a towering landscape form.

“But in the 2016 plan, if I heard everything from the officers correctly, that by issuing an approval today we are actually following City Plan, not the contrary.

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How Main Beach see their suburb being changed. Picture supplied.

“We are actually following what it says, notwithstanding the fact that we might not even like it or think the building is attractive.”

Cr Vorster said he supported the project on environmental and aesthetic grounds and he acknowledged it was an unlimited height area.

“With respect to the character of the neighbourhood — I have great difficulty looking at the particular picture that we do on the screen — great difficulty suggesting that this development would not be in keeping with the neighbourhood,” he said.

Cr Vorster said the council was considering a development in a high-density neighbourhood that was keeping with the character of that suburb.

“And would probably, if you had to gauge the views of the silent majority, be in keeping with the aspirations of that community,” he said.

Designs of the tower approved by council.

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Mr Hutley described Cr Vorster as “out of touch” and suggested Cr Caldwell, who is based at Paradise Point, worked in an area without high-rise development.

Main Beach Association president Sue Donovan has used photographs in the group’s latest newsletter to show what could happen to the suburb if the project was approved.

She said buildings would be approved in Main Beach which, like those in Southport, had closely spaced footprints covering most of the site.

“While this type of tightly packed urban development is acceptable in the Southport CBD it is totally inappropriate to an established residential beachside suburb such as Main Beach,” she wrote.

The proposed development had only 46sq m of landscaping at street level, which meant the landscaping was limited to shrubs, not trees.