Gold Coast election 2020: Palm Beach candidate calls for equal treatment

A high-profile council candidate says southern Gold Coast suburbs need to be given the same treatment as their northern cousins.

PALM Beach and Burleigh Heads need similar concessions on the City Plan changes to Labrador and Biggera Waters, according to a submission by a council candidate.

Journalist and radio host Bern Young has written to the council CEO Dale Dickson in the current round of amendments, calling for equal treatment for the suburbs in her Division 13.

Ms Young has called on city planners to provide three of the sureties being given to the targeted growth areas like Labrador, and apply them equally to the areas along the light rail urban renewal overlay in the current round of amendments.

Ms Young and Katrina Beikhoff are standing in Councillor Daphne McDonald’s division.

“With an estimated 350,000 more people due to live here by 2041, I understand that we cannot rely solely on the new subdivisions in our city’s north, nor on developing the open space in our hinterland, and therefore must have urban renewal and targeted growth areas,” Ms Young said.

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Bern Young at the ABC before standing for council. Picture Glenn Hampson.

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“But why shouldn’t the urban renewal areas, like Palm Beach and Burleigh Heads, get the same rules as targeted growth areas?”

One critical change for Labrador and Biggera Waters means developers can no longer use a 50 per cent building height exceedence test. When developments exceed the required site cover, it will trigger an impact assessment allowing for community comment.

A new neighbourhood elements overlay would also more closely manage future growth and assist in creating attractive, leafy neighbourhoods.

“In Palm Beach and Burleigh Heads, we too desire and deserve buildings which cannot go higher than is currently mapped, cannot be ‘bulkier’ without having community input and have the chance to reflect the neighbourhoods of which they are part,” Ms Young said.