Parking, water strain for booming northern suburb

Residents in an exclusive Gold Coast suburb fear their slice of paradise will be transformed into a concrete jungle as new developments flood into the area.

Diane Woods at the Hope Island development she is protesting. Photo: Tertius Pickard.

HOPE Island residents fear their slice of paradise will be transformed into a concrete jungle as new developments flood into the suburb.

High-density apartment blocks are being built along Sickle Avenue in the new Park Cove estate, while other housing developments, Waterville and The Anchorage, have also gone up recently.

Hope Island development. Artists impression. Picture: supplied

A fourth major housing lot on Grant Avenue, boasting 3866 bedrooms is on the drawing board.

Hope Island residents fear this building boom will put heavy strain on local roads, as well as existing water, electricity and sewerage lines.

Paradise Point and Northern Districts Progress Association interim chairwoman Diane Woods said the “overdevelopment” will strangle the area.

Diane Woods at the Hope Island development she is protesting. Photo: Tertius Pickard.

“We are calling it the ‘Bronx of the future’, everyone will be crammed in and you can see the infrastructure just isn’t going to cope, if there is an accident emergency services will struggle to get in and out,” she said.

Mrs Woods said the community was concerned about a lack of new open spaces, as well as the pressure on parking.

“There’s no public transport nearby and no buses within 2 kilometres, so people will need cars, and where will they go?” she said.

Hope Island development. Photo: Tertius Pickard.

“The Park Cove development has no visitor parking, and it’s already spilling over onto the street.”

The former Byron Bay Shire councillor said Gold Coast City Council was failing to consider the area as a whole and sets a dangerous precedent for other developers when they approve exemptions.

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“They treat every development like a stand-alone, they need to look at everything together because the accumulation of what they’re doing is worrying,” she said.

The Progress Association said it is open to more homes but said the type of property being developed is not suitable.

The pressure group is calling for the council to follow Brisbane’s lead and introduce townhouse and apartment bans in low-density areas.

However area councillor and city planning boss Cameron Caldwell said such policies were already in place.

“Hope Island is a community-lead master plan design which accommodates a mix of housing types, the city plan already has strong planning controls to ensure that high rises and townhouses do not occur in low density residential areas,” he said.

“The road networks and infrastructure that was built prior to most of the development was designed to service a much higher density than will now ever be reached.”