Gold Coast development: $600m Songcheng theme park design will incorporate M2 Coomera Connector access
Plans for a new $600 million theme park are on the Gold Coast are on track, with its design now being revised to link it with a $2.4 billion project. City leaders say it will provide a major injection into the city’s economy.
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PLANS for a $600 million theme park at Carrara are being revised to make way for a major new road.
Australian Legends World, put forward by Chinese developer Songcheng, will feature an indoor ski field, animal exhibits and adventure park along with a 3500-seat performance theatre and is expected to create thousands of jobs during its construction.
Its layout and design is now being altered because of its proximity to the future route of the $2.4 billion Coomera Connector, a six-lane highway also known as the Intra-Regional Transport Corridor (IRTC) tipped to take 60,000 cars off a bottleneck of the M1.
The IRTC will run for 36.5km between Carrara and Stapylton.
Town planners representing Songcheng have sought more information from the State Government about the road’s design so the access points to the theme park can be best configured.
It is the second major redesign of the project after a fibreglass Uluru and replica of the Captain Cook’s HMS Endeavour were dumped last year.
The Bulletin understands the project will go before city leaders once the road access issues are settled.
A council spokesman said there was no timeline for when the project would go before the planning committee.
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“There are still outstanding issues with this application that the applicant is trying to resolve,” he said.
“The application is not yet in ‘decision stage’ as the State Government has not finished their concurrence agency assessment.
“We cannot give an estimate of when the application might be presented to the council for a decision.”
Sources close to Songcheng told the Bulletin that flooding issues on the site had been dealt with and it was now focused on improving access to the Nerang-Broadbeach Road site.
The project has already been given the tick of approval by the Chinese Government.
In March it was named among the top 40 projects the government was approving around the world, effectively giving it a green light despite the withdrawal of other China-linked projects.
A development application submitted in mid-2017 is still under assessment by council officers after the developer requested multiple extensions of the consideration period.
The council received more than 600 submissions during the public comment period held in January-February 2018, many of which objected to the proposal.
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Concerns include the impact on the floodplain, traffic and a negative impact on the suburb’s amenity.
However, there were also submissions in support of the development from prominent business figures including Gold Coast Tourism chairman Paul Donovan, Gold Coast North Chamber of Commerce president Gary Mays and Vicky Cao, director of developer Garuda GC, which owns the Southport Star of the Sea site.
Mayor Tom Tate, a supporter of the project, said new tourism products were needed to boost the city’s economy.
“Renewing our tourism assets is vital to ensure we remain the number one holiday destination in Australia, as well as a destination of choice for the global travel market,” he said.
“This theme park will offer a different experience but one in line with our key international tourism markets.
“The proponents must satisfy all conditions – both council and state – and I’m confident they are working their way through that process.’’
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