Councillor Mark Hammel says Meaghan Scanlon should focus on light rail stage three housing

Gold Coast councillor Mark Hammel questions why Housing Minister Meaghan Scanlon intervened on a country club project instead of Broady-Burleigh light rail homes. Full explosive Q&A

Housing Minister Meaghan Scanlon, after a developer wanted her to intervene with special “call in” powers on an abandoned golf course, used her powers to forever changes planning on the Gold Coast.

Her temporary planning local planning instrument (TLPI) used to oversee the Arundel Hills Country Club development provides hundreds of new homes, many affordable - but it has put council and nearby residents offside.

City planning chair Mark Hammel, in an interview with the Bulletin, reveals the road ahead.

GOLD COAST BULLETIN: What is your response to the TLPI going ahead. Did the decision by the State Government come as a surprise.

MARK HAMMEL: The announcement of a temporary local planning instrument over Arundel didn’t come as a surprise because we all guessed it would be made before the upcoming State election. What I really question is why this developer and this golf course received this treatment from the State Government. When a Minister directs resources in her department to investigate a TLPI, why would she not have directed these resources towards looking at the light rail stage 3 corridor. Or to have looked at the former targeted growth area. Both of these areas have got significant planning work to be done through the amendment process, where significant community consultation is to be undertaken. A TLPI in these areas would have

increased dwelling capacity in the tens of thousands. Why direct these resources to a TLPI over a golf course to generate 650 dwellings.

Councillor Mark Hammel. Picture: Glenn Campbell

GCB: Were you satisfied with the consultation.

MH: The only consultation the community had on this TLPI was to make submissions on something they did not understand and something that wasn’t explained to them properly. There was no consultation.

GCB: What is the precedent here, and future impact on golf courses on the Coast? Do you believe there will be more decisions like this in the future, overriding council’s powers?

MH: I really hope we haven’t seen a precedent set here where we see the State Government

prepared to go over the head of local government on matters like this. I would have to question if any golf course in Queensland is safe based on how the state government has approached this. I believe this is really short-sighted planning from a government who wants to look like they have this dwelling crisis under control. We need the state government to work collaboratively with council, instead of on-the-fly policy and knee-jerk reactions like this one.

Meaghan Scanlon. Picture: Annette Dew

GCB: Minister Scanlon has talked about council (development) approvals being down?

MH: As a part of the TLPI justification, the state government referenced the number of approvals given by the City. The reality is, development approvals are down across all local governments. It is a Queensland wide, let alone Australia wide issue. We know that we have enough available infill development sites to cater for growth, with the right planning done.

GCB: Where are the negotiations at? Have State bureaucrats reached out to council, has the

developer been involved in any talks. Have you seen any updated planning, and can any of that be made available.

MH: I am aware that City officers and their state counterparts recently met to discuss the TLPI and discuss the practicalities of assessing certain components of the temporary local planning instrument. My reading of the document is that it would appear sections have been rushed and possibly not considerate of how they can be assessed which may present problems in the future. The developer has not been in conversation with council, I would be interested to know what conversations they are having with the State Government however.

GCB: The Minister talked about that there are enough golf courses on the Coast.

MH: In my opinion, the Minister’s comment that this is just another golf course and that there are enough golf courses on the Gold Coast is disrespectful to the people who have paid good money to live here. The State doesn’t acknowledge the fact that while it was a golf course, it served a far greater purpose than that for this area. Golf courses right across our City typically serve an important hydraulic function, tend to have big sections of remnant vegetation and are the green centre our suburbs are built around. To dismiss this so readily shows a degree of disrespect to the people who choose to live around this green space.

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Originally published as Councillor Mark Hammel says Meaghan Scanlon should focus on light rail stage three housing