Revealed: The billion dollar infrastructure bill when Coast is home to one million people

The Gold Coast will be home to one million people in the not too distant future - and it will come with a cost. Find out more

Some suburbs will not cope with the city’s growth targets as the Gold Coast reaches one million residents, it can be revealed.

Experienced city councillor Peter Young has raised concerns about the ultimate “carrying capacity” of suburbs as infrastructure like roads and parks need to be upgraded.

The investigation for the next City Plan will determine which are those suburbs - and whether the cost of providing these services is too high.

Council on Tuesday is to start community consultation on the new planning scheme.

The initial $5 million budget, which covers using consultants, is being increased to $7 million.

Planning committee chair Mark Hammel said the new Planning Scheme work included an infrastructure review.

“When this work is done, we will have an accurate idea of how much council infrastructure will need to be upgraded and what the expected cost to ratepayers is over the next 20 years,” he said.

“This isn’t just about coming up with a dwelling target for areas, it needs to include the infrastructure requirements and, importantly, what that infrastructure is going to cost.

The Gold Coast is about launch consultation for a new City Plan. Acting Mayor Donna Gates and City planning committee chair Mark Hammel are encouraging residents to "have your say".

“While the community is supportive of more dwellings to support a growing population, they want to see evidence of the infrastructure upgrades that are going to occur, what the cost of that is going to be and, most importantly, the timing of it.”

It all comes City planners estimated the Broadbeach to Burleigh corridor for light rail Stage Three could accommodate up to 32,000 more units.

Mr Young in a briefing on City Plan first asked about the “carrying capacity” for areas.

The current City Plan began in 2016 when the city’s population was 570,000. It has increased by 90,000 people and expected to reach one million by 2046.

Mr Hammel believes the city has got significant infill land opportunity serviced by infrastructure capable of handling more people.

“At community meetings I regularly hear that we are full and can’t fit any more people – this is not the case,” he said.

“The point Councillor Young was making is that there will be suburbs, or sections of a suburb, where the cost to deliver infrastructure upgrades will be so high that the number of dwellings we can get from it would not justify the investment.

“This is why the planning scheme work at the same time as the new infrastructure planning work is so important. There is no point having a planning document saying we can put 10,000 people in a suburb when the infrastructure document says it would cost a few billion dollars to do it.”

Cr Mark Hammel — explaining the rollout of the City Plan consultation.

Acting Mayor Donna Gates on Tuesday will unveil the community engagement to inform the City’s new planning scheme. She is urging all Gold Coasters to have their say.

Ms Gates has voiced concerns about reports of the light rail Stage 3 corridor between Miami and Burleigh being able to accommodate another 32,000 residents.

She said the council would “listen to the community” before determining dwelling numbers.

“Managing population growth is one of the biggest challenges facing the Gold Coast and it is vital we tackle it together,” Ms Gates said.

Construction taking off on the Coast. Picture: Glenn Hampson.

“Further growth is inevitable, but we can influence how we grow, where we grow and what our different neighbourhoods look like.

“We have expert planners at the City, but we also need our community to tell us how they see the future of their neighbourhood, where they think they will work, what services they will need to have nearby.”

The engagement commences on GChaveyoursay.com.au and closes on October 23.

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