Plan for future city near canelands and Coomera Connector to accommodate Coast building boom

Major new development is in the works for the Gold Coast to accommodate a population of one million by the 2040s. Here’s where the new housing will go.

We know the Gold Coast will be home to more than a million people by the 2040s, possibly earlier. Most of them moving to the north. What can now be revealed is the location of their new home.

The Future Gold Coast series has given some guide posts on where we are heading as a city.

Demographer Mark McCrindle outlined how the north’s population will increase by 75 per cent. Most of us thought the majority of new arrivals would be in Glitter Strip super towers.

City planning chair Mark Hammel explained the growth would be concentrated on a western strip of the M1 from Oxenford through to Ormeau and Coomera.

No more detached housing. New arrivals living in units, duplexes and townhouses.

What hasn’t been discussed is how far north and where this growth will go.

In a draft response by City planning officers to the Government, can be found two maps.

Mark Hammel at his family's cane farm at Alberton in the northern Gold Coast. Pic by Luke Marsden.

“For the first time, the State Government has identified a Potential Future Growth Area (PFGA) within the Gold Coast,” the report says.

The land is on either site of the M1 – at Stapleton in the west and Alberton in the east.

This is, at first glance, for industrial land, to get a 50-year supply to add to the Yatala base. But this “expansion” investigation will ultimately find new residential pockets.

Officers want the State to “commit to the additional infrastructure to support this growth”.

Cr Hammel knows every inch of farming dirt. He knows the bigger picture here is “the canelands” and where the route for the Coomera Connector will be built.

Future Gold Coast: the section in red show a new urban footprint identified as the far north of the city.

This isn’t the first stage from Nerang to Coomera. It’s the next stage touching on the cane.

“While the section of the Coomera Connector under construction is important, we just need to see the entire Coomera Connector all the way from the Logan Motorway down to Nerang to see its true benefit,” he told your columnist.

“It will make it easier for our residents to get around our city but also to ensure employment opportunities and business opportunities get the benefit as well. It must be the full Coomera Connector, the whole way through.”

Future Gold Coast: the sections in orange show a new urban footprint in the Gold Coast's north.

Mayor Tom Tate estimates the north in the long term can unlock 150,000 dwellings. The City wants the State to start building the infrastructure - all the roads, now.

“Well that’s where people should be. And those people who go “oh, you’re cutting down trees” - there are no trees mate,” the Mayor told the Bulletin.

“They’re cane fields. It gets cut every year.”

So the next step is “calling in” the area - make it a priority development area.

Map of the Coomera Connector Stage 2 route from Coomera to Loganholme.

“That’s what they should do. I’ll write a letter (of support), They call it in - they PDA it,” the Mayor added.

Green light the green cane fields for the City’s next biggest suburb. The maps point to it. Both State and council seem on the same page. We just need more than pot-holed rural roads.

There may be new houses again, in the north. It’s our biggest future planning challenge.

Follow @PaulWestonGC