Councillor backyard fight: Is this a big bulky blob of a building or luxury tower?
The approval of a 14-level tower at Palm Beach has sparked a massive divide and growing bitterness between some councillors on appropriate future beachfront development.
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THE approval of a 14-level tower at Palm Beach has sparked a massive divide and growing bitterness between some councillors on appropriate future beachfront development.
Veteran southern-based councillor Daphne McDonald believes the building is a “big blob” but a majority of her colleagues see it as an improvement on an earlier approval for a retirement village tower on the site.
Councillor Hermann Vorster told a full council meeting on Wednesday the previously planned aged care facility was “a shorter, squatter building taking up more of the site”.
Many of his colleagues agreed including planning chair Cameron Caldwell, who in his closing comments on supporting the application, talked up the new project as a spectacular example of a modern luxury beachfront apartment tower on a massive site.
On the Bulletin’s Facebook page, the response in the comments’ section so far is divided.
“I understand there are some residents that are highly against development, but this city is growing. It can no longer grow outwards, so it must grow upwards, it’s pretty simple,” a reader wrote.
The responses at a full council meeting on Tuesday, during debate before the 14-level tower on The Esplanade was approved, were similarly mixed.
Cr McDonald only got colleagues Peter Young, Bob La Castra and Brooke Patterson to support her call for a refusal.
“This looks like a big, bulky blob,” she said.
Many of Cr McDonald’s other colleagues — William Owen-Jones and Donna Gates, backed up by Cr Vorster and Cr Caldwell — could not hide their tiring of her opposition to any high rise or lower rise development by questioning the detail in her arguments.
Cr Owen-Jones sought to clarify there was only one not two towers in the application.
Council insiders confirmed many councillors were stunned by Cr McDonald’s negativity to the project.
Cr Caldwell, the planning chair, was blunt with his closing comments directed at the veteran Palm Beach representative who has a strong following on Facebook from the anti-tram and anti-tower resident protesters.
“We’re seeing a development now that has a 40 per cent site cover, two car parks per unit on a 3000sqm block,” Cr Caldwell said.
If Cr McDonald had “an objective lens” he suggested it would have been impossible not to have supported the new application.
“Because it is really is setting a pretty high standard where we would expect developments to be in Palm Beach,” Cr Caldwell said.
The planning chair added that he had asked colleagues to explain the City Plan to residents and how the performance criteria which allows a 50 per cent uplift sets a height limit.
This meant the scheme gave security to both residents and developers on what would be built in a suburb and how high, Cr Caldwell said.
“If we didn’t have that provision, the height of this particular building on a 3000sqm site in Palm Beach, would be much, much higher than what is proposed. I’m absolutely certain of it. It would outstretch the 19th Avenue apartments, Royal Palm, Princess Palm, they’d all be dwarfed by something that could be achieved on a 3000sqm beach front site,” he said.
“This particular application — it’s an unbelievable site in one of the most spectacular parts of the Gold Coast, I think it’s well worth our support for the particular metrics and lifestyle that it will present for the community.”
EARLIER: 14-STOREY TOWERS ‘WAY OF FUTURE’ FOR PALM BEACH
A NEW 14-storey luxury beachfront tower, approved by council, is how the skyline of Palm Beach on the southern Gold Coast will appear in the future.
Councillors at full council meeting on Tuesday backed an officer’s recommendation to approve the tower, despite it being higher than allowed and greater than density limits. Only area councillor Daphne McDonald voted against the massive development.
Cr McDonald, earlier in attempting get a refusal for the application, was only supported by councillors Peter Young, Bob La Castra and Brooke Patterson.
The keys to majority support for the project was it would be a luxury development, could break-up height offering a point of difference of the view from the Gold Coast Highway and was lower in height than some neighbouring towers.
The application had received unanimous support at an earlier planning committee meeting.
Residents had written to council concerned about building height, character and amenity, setbacks, site cover, density, shadows, traffic and parking along with construction noise and potential impact on their property values
But the luxury design along with a changed application to the previous approval for a residential care facility triggered, on the performance-based City Plan, a 50 per cent uplift on conditions.
Robina-based councillor Hermann Vorster, while acknowledging the concerns of residents and potential impact on dunal areas, argued the development added variety to the skyline.
“We are dealing with a development that significantly reduces the amount of site coverage,” he said.
Cr Vorster said he supported developments which provided different heights of buildings compared to the similar level buildings along the Gold Coast Highway at Mermaid Beach. This project would increase the appeal of Palm Beach, he said.
“I think that (those same level buildings) creates a hallway effect (at Mermaid Beach) which can often obscure the coastal situation,” Cr Vorster said.
Deputy Mayor Donna Gates admitted she had concerns about the location of the building so close to the dunes but was comforted by comments from officers at the Office of Architecture of Heritage.
Their report suggests the building was “well managed” in terms of its interface with other properties and the glazed balconies were of the highest standard.
Planning chair Cameron Caldwell backed their comments, supporting the project because it was “well contained with the historic provisions of the planning scheme”.
Officers in their report said the application sought to change the existing development permit over the site which allowed for a 32.5 metre high residential care facility tower containing 147 single bedroom units.
The new building would be 43.5m and 14 storeys, allowing for 76 units and 196 bedrooms.
“Since obtaining approval in 2019, the applicant at the time Regis Ages Care Pty Ltd has recently sold the subject site. The lot was then purchased by Palm Beach Land Co Pty Ltd and is now seeking to alter the development approval from a residential care facility to multiple dwellings,” officers said.
The site was located within an urban neighbourhood and “in limited circumstances building heights can exceed the mapped height up to 50 per cent”.
“The surrounding area of Palm Beach is currently transitioning from historic low-rise residential development to medium-rise multiple dwellings,” officers wrote in their report.
“Specifically, the intersection of Nineteenth Ave and Gold Coast Highway location has evolved as a focal point for the locality in terms of intensity of development, availability of services and transport accessibility. This is evident by the nature and scale of development surrounding this intersection. The proposal delivers a built from and scale that reflects the local identity of the area.”
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Originally published as Councillor backyard fight: Is this a big bulky blob of a building or luxury tower?
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