CITY BEAT: The secret strategy which will deliver $1 billion in community projects for the Coast
PRIME Minister Scott Morrison and Opposition leader Anthony Albanese are being asked to commit money to three major projects – light rail, HOTA and Greenheart. How much is this worth? The answer is stunning.
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PRIME Minister Scott Morrison and Opposition leader Anthony Albanese are being asked to commit money to three major projects – light rail, HOTA and Greenheart.
How much is this worth to us?
This is a request from the council to political parties about how best our taxpayer and ratepayer money can be used, gaining a commitment before the federal poll in May.
Councillors were briefed privately by council officers on this before Mayor Tom Tate was asked to write to both leaders with the funding requests.
Home Affairs Minister and McPherson MP Karen Andrews has since called it a “stunt”.
Here are the facts. Light rail Stage 4 from Burleigh to the airport, we can reveal, will cost taxpayers at least $2.5bn. Council has put $260m of ratepayer money in its forward budget.
The city has already spent $130m of capital investment on HOTA, including the green bridge and the gallery.
A mid-year review, discussed in closed session at council, shows there is a need for a large format, 1800-seat lyric theatre and a smaller 600 to 800-seat theatre. The old performing arts centre should be demolished.
The next stage is costed at $295m and federal backing ensures fast-tracking designs so it would be shovel ready by the end of the year.
Greenheart, which will progress the Robina City Parklands into an event space capable of hosting 50,000 crowds, is costed at $350m. Council is investing $18m and wants $150m.
What did officers advise councillors in the Evandale chambers?
“If secured, these advocacy proposals would deliver over $1bn in federal government investment on the Gold Coast over the next 10 years,” they said.
This translates to a lot of jobs. It guarantees we get benefits from the 2032 Olympics.
We all know what Ms Andrews thinks. What about her colleagues Fadden’s Stuart Robert and Moncrieff’s Angie Bell? How about Labor-based Senator Murray Watt?
Some noise was made about the convention and exhibition centre expansion missing out on the top three. Expanding the Broadbeach facility means we no longer lose business to Brisbane.
But HOTA, the Greenheart and light rail tick the arts, environment and transport boxes.
Your columnist was told the tactics from the mayoral office to narrow down the options.
Councillors, when workshopping the wishlist, had put forward all sorts of smaller projects, many of them worthy. But it left the Commonwealth with an escape clause.
“A lot of councillors had a list of $5m to $8m projects,” a council insider said. “You could have had a list of 20 and they (the government) would have given us the bottom 10.”
As a taxpayer, are you happy with the wishlist? More importantly, are you happy with the federal response so far?
Our federal pollies are rarely in the media spotlight here. They can get shirty. This Covid-led recovery poll and your vote puts them under the spotlight more than ever.
EARLIER:
The ageing performing arts centre will be replaced by a new lyric theatre and boutique theatre, under a planned $295m refurbishment, following a HOTA review.
The Bulletin can reveal details of the designs of the new theatre components which will see the existing ageing arts centre demolished.
Mayor Tom Tate and all councillors have backed the plans after discussing a mid-year HOTA review which prompted them to put it in the top three of a federal funding wishlist to the federal government and the opposition.
The Mayor will write to Scott Morrison and Anthony Albanese also asking for funding for the Greenheart at Robina and light rail stage four to the Gold Coast Airport.
Council officers told councillors the Performing Arts complex was more than 30 years old and “showing signs of age and deterioration”
“This contrasts with other assets in the complex including the recently constructed Outdoor Stage, the Green Bridge and the HOTA Art Gallery and does not compare favourably with other recently developed theatre projects, including in regional centres, across Australia,” they said.
Leading operators in the Australian theatre sector and Tourism Events Queensland suggested that the Coast, if it was to attract major national and international touring shows, needs a theatre with a capacity of approximately 1600 seats.
A theatre complex also needs to be flexible so that it can quickly be transformed to cater for a range of different shows from classical ballet, to live theatre and stand up comedy,
New data shows the Coast currently has a population ratio of 53 theatre seats per 10,000 residents including 2000 seats at Star Casino.
These numbers compare poorly with smaller regional cities like Cairns, Mackay, Townsville, and Toowoomba.
Key findings of the mid-year review included:
* The city needs for a large format lyric theatre with a minimum of approximately 1600 seats operating in conjunction with a smaller theatre venue of 600-800 seats.
* The existing HOTA Central does not meet the standards of a contemporary theatre and performing arts space.
* Without an extension of HOTA Central, the existing seating capacity of 1100 would need to be maintained moving forward and major reconfigurations to the entire building to satisfy compliance will reduce that capacity further to between 600 and 800 seats.
* Carparking could be incorporated into the existing performing arts complex footprint, which lacks underground spaces, unlocking the potential for other opportunities on southwestern part of the HOTA site.
* The digital potential of the precinct must be explored to realise emerging opportunities like an eMuseum, eSports and eGaming.
The next stage is costed at $295m and could be “shovel ready” with a design and construct contract by the end of this year.
All councillors supported the masterplan being updated to include the changes, seeking early design and business case activities.
Officers will investigate the option for demolition and rebuild as opposed to refurbishment of the existing HOTA Central Building and consider the Saint Margaret’s Chapel relocation from the site.
Mayor Tom Tate when approached for comment on the HOTA on the mid-year review told the Bulletin: “I can’t make any comment at this stage.”
What’s happening with the Gold Coast’s light rail expansion?
March 7: Light rail is to become the centrepiece of the city’s future transport strategy to 2041, after councillors demanded council officers have a rethink.
A revised discussion paper to go to residents will now focus on the trams, extending light rail south through Palm Beach to the Gold Coast Airport.
At a transport committee meeting on Tuesday, planning committee chair Councillor Cameron Caldwell was outspoken in his support of light rail, saying not enough was being done to upgrade the existing system from Helensvale to Broadbeach.
He said more information on trams was needed in the paper. The report will remain confidential as it gets a rewrite.
“I don’t see enough in here about light rail,” Cr Caldwell told officers.
“That is the mode if someone is going to get out of their car in the next 10 or twenty years, the most likely thing they are going to get into is the light rail.
“There just needs to be more of it. We need to advertise it. We need to support it. We need to push it.”
Cr Caldwell believed there was “more meat on the bone” with the previous 2012 strategy.
The city’s public transport plan for 2018-2028 advocates for “the establishment of a 2021 public transport network that features light rail from Helensvale to Burleigh Heads and a high-frequency bus network that is connected to light rail at key interchange points”.
Light rail Stage 3 was funded in 2018 and due to be delivered by 2022, but there have been delays on constructing the 6.5km track from Broadbeach to Burleigh.
“We are talking about too much fluff and not enough focus about the issues as they hit the ground,” Cr Caldwell said.
“So I think we are setting people up for a theoretical discussion about whether they want to fly to work in an autonomous hovercraft like George Jetson. I think this is pitched a little too much at that.
“Then to give that some context, when we did the last transport strategy in 2012, at that point we didn’t have any light rail started in our city.
“Now the answer to getting mode shift in the city, the obvious answer which we have invested in, is light rail.
“So again, I will sit here and say, we haven’t had any light rail construction in our city for four years.”
Council transport and infrastructure director Alton Twine said this report was the first tentative step and was to “get the discussion paper dirty” and get feedback.
He said the completed document would be more technical with specific things for suburbs, and allow council to obtain funding.
The earlier public transport plan report said the number of people using trams and buses on the Coast continued to increase.
“Since the commencement of light rail in 2014, overall public transport travel has increased by more than 25 per cent. More than 24 million public transport trips were completed on the Gold Coast in the 2016-17 financial year; a third of them on light rail,” the report said.
How light rail will increase property prices in Palmy
Mayor Tom Tate says apartment towers in Palm Beach are shrinking – not getting taller – and property prices have only increased because of light rail.
Councillor Tate made the stunning remarks after the Bulletin approached him about a survey of all councillors by a community advocate and anti-tram group.
“I have a Go Card and use the light rail several times a year,” he said. “The important point is that people have voted with their feet and this transport system has exceeded predicted passenger numbers since its inception.
“It is our major transport spine from Helensvale and will join the airport and on to Coolangatta. Our future east-west rapid transport spur lines will feed off the light rail.
“Light rail has been a catalyst for major uplifts in property values along its route, so it is difficult to argue against the merits of the project.
LIGHT RAIL PLANS NOT ENOUGH TO DETER GEORGE’S NEW GREEK CAFE
“What many people don’t realise is that building height limits through Palm Beach have not increased. They are the same approved heights as the then 1983 Town Plan. In fact, we have actually reduced height limits on Jefferson Lane – not increased them – so the naysayers need to be factual when it comes to light rail.’’
In August last year, all councillors apart from area representative Daphne McDonald backed plans for a 14-storey luxury beachfront tower. They observed the tower was smaller than some built three decades ago and later agreed that was how the skyline of Palm Beach would appear in the future.
In the community survey, several councillors for the first time have admitted they never used light rail or intend to board a tram.
Richlister says yay to light rail, but nay to Oceanway
An anti-light rail group will publicise the responses of councillors about their experience on the trams as the city oversees the rollout of light rail from Broadbeach to Burleigh and possibly south to the Gold Coast Airport.
Community advocate Nicolle Archer has started sharing responses to her tram survey with Save Our Southern Coast. Only three councillors – Mark Hammel, Peter Young and Daphne McDonald – had responded on the eve of Wednesday’s deadline.
The survey notes that “despite the absence of facts we find councillors are ready to advocate for or criticise the proposed southern Gold Coast Highway route (for light rail)”.
“How did councillors reach that position – through their experiences on the Rapid Transport-Light Rail system?,” the survey asked.
Cr McDonald, a strong opponent of the tram route being extended through Palm Beach, noted she had not used the tram in the past 12 months.
“The light rail is not convenient for my use and would be too time consuming for my travel as it is not near my home or the locations I wish to visit,” she wrote.
Nerang and Pacific Pines-based councillor Peter Young said he had used the trams once.
“I live at Oxenford and my office is at Nerang. There’s no convenient public transport connection,” he said.
Cr Young said he had to leave his office at Nerang several times a day for meetings with residents and at council committees.
“Public transport is unlikely to meet my needs efficiently or in a satisfactory manner, given that I’m attending residents, parks and council,” he wrote.
Cr Hammel, who is based in the far north, estimated he had used light rail 20 times in the past year, but offered no comment on the service.
Ms Archer said it was important to learn how much the elected representatives had experience with light rail.
“Mayor Tom Tate has a transport stop outside his office (at Southport). He’s in the best position to use it,” she said.
But other councillors, like many residents, said they could not get easy access to public transport, she said.
“I told the Save Our Southern Gold Coast group I was doing the survey, and they were welcome to share it. I’ve been wondering what the answer of the councillors was for some time.
“We don’t get to hear our councillors – our decision-makers – what’s their personal experience? I find it difficult with the lack of information about light rail how any councillor could advocate or criticise at this stage, they don’t have the information.”
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