Private talks between the City and state government which gives boaties and trawlers a home
Private talks are being held, between the state government and council, to solve The Spit’s biggest challenge. FIND OUT WHAT HAPPENS NEXT.
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Private talks are being held, between the state government and council to solve The Spit’s biggest challenge.
How do we find a home for tourism boaties, help the trawlers in the Fishing Co-op and settle once and for all if public land should be leased to bungy operators AJ Hackett?
Emails have been exchanged, talks held in George Street in Brisbane. A solution is on the table.
That solution is the best waterfront land on the Gold Coast. Owned by us, the taxpayer.
In the Spit Master Plan, it’s called Village Centre North – Carter’s Basin. From the Fishermen’s Co-op to the Sea World car park. Vacant lots right now filled with long grass.
Mayor Tom Tate has written to Deputy Premier Steven Miles to sort out its future.
Further south, has been an unprecedented wave of development action.
In August, city councillors backed officer recommendations and approved the $480m revamp of Mariners Cove to include a six-star Ritz Carlton hotel.
The city’s $100 million-a-year marine tourism industry, which includes about 30 boats on leases off the old Fisherman’s Wharf, must find a new home.
Their choices are Carter’s Basin and Howards Landings on the western side of the Broadwater where boatie supportive owners have worked through marathon planning applications with council.
A council insider reveals the state government has made an approach about Village Centre North.
“The state would give the City a lease on 1.5ha, under four hectares of seabed lease. I’m sure we could get the Co-op and the marine operators in there,” the City source says.
“There is light at the end of the tunnel but the government and council must move quickly.”
Council knows improving the site will be at a price – between $10 million to $15 million.
A councillor aware of the talks, says; “The Co-op needs certainty. They’ve been there a long time. I see a fish market and trawlers. We would be the custodians and work with the state.”
Five years ago, in the summer of 2018, Cameron Dick as State Development Minister admitted a lack of new projects meant The Spit had been at a standstill for two decades.
The Spit Master Plan found tourism and commercial uses were clustered in two locations: Sea World and the southern area comprising Marina Mirage, Mariner’s Cove Marina, Sheraton Grand Mirage Resort and Palazzo Versace.
An options report identified the precinct as the village centre which Mr Dick said “outlines the potential to deliver a new mixed-use boutique development south of Sea World with a boardwalk connecting the tourism offerings to the natural parklands at the north”.
Two years later Mr Dick received an email from the rundown Co-op warning that bureaucratic red tape was threatening their future.
Councillors now have an opportunity to finalise a “working master plan” to accommodate the boaties and trawlers and go to us – the community – for consultation.
The City as “the caretaker” could ensure all tenancies were leasehold.
We could finally deliver a Broadwater home, not just for the rich and almost famous who rock into town, but for everyone. It sounds like a real plan.
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