I want to hear from you!We are releasing the latest version of our City Plan today for public consultation. Unlike previous City Plan community feedback efforts we will be doing two rounds of consultation with the first opening today and finishing on the 25th of October with the second round happening in November – December this year. So this is everybody's chance to have their say on shaping our City. This is the third major update/improvement for City Plan since its introduction in early 2016. This proposed update covers height and density, environmental growth areas, built form, urban design, employment and land use improvements. The link to have your say is at the bottom of this post. The key is balancing our lifestyle with ensuring our City has enough jobs for people to put food on the table, clothes on backs and roofs over heads – keeping families together! The City Plan is our number one economic and lifestyle planning document – this is why it's so important for every local to take an interest and have a say. Three areas in the City have been identified as growth areas: Biggera Waters, Southport West and Labrador. Remembering the overall strategy is to build up in the urban areas instead of building out into our green, open and recreation spaces in the City. We have also deleted four areas from our 'future growth investigation areas' list after feedback from residents and local Councillors. These areas include Mudgeeraba, Gilston, Carrara and Coomera (Amity Road). We are reducing red tape in some future Industry areas to help promote job growth on industrial land such as at Yatala. We have also proposed to make it easier to establish various community facilities around the City, refined the buffer areas around the Pimpama and Elanora Sewerage treatment plants and to better protect rural amenity by requiring more rigorous approval process for transport depots that park multiple large trucks on rural properties. We have proposed to simplify building heights to be set only in metres. For example the current plan may have a building height set at '15m or 3 storeys' however that meant some applications could fit 5 storeys within those 15m which was not the intention. In some of the 15m height example cases we have also dropped height to 12 metres. For the first time the entire city plan has the building height map covering every property on the Gold Coast. There are no building height increases anywhere outside of the slight increases in the three identified growth areas (West Southpor, Biggera Waters and Labrador) in the amendments to City Plan being released today and the building heights have been proposed to be lowered in a few areas such is on Chevron Island for example. On Chevron we are removing the unlimited height setting, replacing it with 33m 'medium' height setting. Sovereign Island precinct is getting strengthen 'large house' character protection in the Strategic Framework of the plan. We are also improving the set back and site cover percentage requirements on new development applications across the city. We are also reflecting the change in the desirability of people for more private open space as opposed to communal open space. These means increasing the requirements on new multi-unit development applications to make balconies more usable for owners to better reflect contemporary practices and lifestyles. According to the State Government's SEQ Regional Plan we should expect our city to grow by 13,000 to 16,000 people a year. The Queensland Government has set a target for the City to handle up to 158,000 new dwellings by 2041. I think it will be less than that but we have to properly plan our land use, transport, sewerage, water and recreational infrastructure for those numbers of people. Future proofing our City planning is all about protecting our lifestyle so that’s why it's everyone’s responsibility to read the materials, think about it and have your say on our City’s planning scheme.The City Plan, like all other planning schemes in Queensland is performance based. This dynamic approach to planning gives flexibility to allow development outcomes that cannot always be foreshadowed. It's the same for every other Council in Queensland. This means the plan is drafted not to prohibit development but to accommodate variation, innovation and unforeseen development that is beneficial to the community as a whole. Because of this the legislation the assessment of individual development applications must be on a case-by-case basis, and can include a level of discretion to reach a balanced decision in the public interest by officers and Councillors. There will be 12 pop up consultation booths with City planners and other staff to answer your questions and to take feedback, in attendance at markets and shopping centres all over the Gold Coast:Pop-up sessionsCoomera East Shopping Centre01 October 2019Harbour Town Shopping Centre03 October 2019Thomas Drive Chevron Island05 October 2019Nerang Markets06 October 2019Helensvale location TBA08 October 2019Burleigh Heads Stocklands10 October 2019Palm Beach Currumbin Farmers Market12 October 2019Mudgeeraba Market Shopping15 October 2019The Strand, Coolangatta16 October 2019Australia Fair Shopping Centre, Southport17 October 2019Q Super Centre, Mermaid Waters19 October 2019Organic Gold Coast Farmers Market, Miami20 October 2019Ormeau Village22 October 2019 Here is the link to the fact sheets of what is proposed to be changed: www.gchaveyoursay.com.au/ourcityourplan/documents *******The most important bit******Here is the link to have your say here: www.gchaveyoursay.com.au/ourcityourplan

Posted by Mayor Tom Tate on Wednesday, 25 September 2019