Gold Coast development: Council unveils proposed changes to the City Plan
Developers will no longer be able to use the light rail to justifying increasing the height and density of towers under proposed changes to the City Plan.
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DEVELOPERS will no longer be able to use the light rail to justify increasing the height and density under proposed changes to the City Plan.
The Gold Coast City Council yesterday unveiled significant changes to the plan after months of at-times contentious debate over the document, which governs development across the city.
Of the 34 items listed in the initial City Plan amendment in September, 11 have been the subject of “major” changes as a result of the first round of consultation.
Among those are changes to developments on the light rail’s southern route, which will terminate at Coolangatta.
“The strategic framework will be modified to emphasise that the future light rail corridor (from Broadbeach to Coolangatta) cannot be used to justify increased heights and densities until appropriate investigations have been done,” a council feedback report says.
Council is also proposing to “introduce a tower base height” for development outside the light rail urban renewal area.
The changes will not be retrospective, meaning projects already approved along the tram route will be unaffected.
Council planning boss Cr Cameron Caldwell said residents’ feedback had been taken into account.
“What we are looking to do is make sure that developments which are in and around suburban neighbourhoods are in keeping with those localities,” he said.
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“We do not want to see big, bulky tower bases around suburban streets away from our active centres.
“The early feedback I have received in the past month is that we have struck the right balance in terms of planning carefully for the growth we are expected to see in the city.”
The Bulletin last month revealed one of the key proposed changes – that Palm Beach would have a new development map that reduced beachfront high-rise buildings to four levels at its most expensive and sought-after street address. Under the changes, the eastern side of Jefferson Lane will change from medium density to low-medium density, almost halving the existing height limits.
The new 16m height limit will allow for buildings of only four levels, with developers no longer able to get a 50 per cent uplift in their designs. The residential density will be one bedroom per 50sq m.
More than 1203 submissions were received during the first consultation period, which ran from September 27 to November 11.
This included 14,399 individual submission points that raised 544 unique issues.
A second round of community consultation began yesterday and will run until February 4.
After this the council’s proposed amendments will be sent to the State Government for approval before being returned to the council to be ticked off.
This process is expected to be finished between March and June.
Visit gchaveyoursay.com.au/ourcityourplan to have your say.
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