The Council of the City of Gold Coast has update the Gold Coast City Plan, with version 10 commencing on 4 July 2023. This update included 6 amendment packages, including the Ministerial approved items from the Major Update 2 & 3 package.
In this update from the Civity team, we are looking at 3 noteworthy updates;
Item 10 – Changes to communal and private open space requirements;
Item 16 – Urban expansion: Upper Coomera Investigation area; and
Item 18 – Improvements to Future Industry precinct.
We have provided a quick snapshot about what has changed and what it might mean for your future development.
Communal and Private Open Space
These changes to the City Plan address long standing implementation issues associated with misaligned communal and private open space requirements. Some of the key changes of interest include:
The threshold for providing communal open space has increased to be required for development involving ten (10) or more dwellings.
Communal open space has changed to a flat rate of 6.5m2 per dwelling which is significantly less that what was previously required.
What does this mean? The previous private and communal open space requirements have been a significant implementation issue and the acceptable outcome had rarely been satisfied. The City Plan changes are now more reflective of the way in which we are living, the changing type of dwellings being delivered across the City and industry feedback. The changes include increases to the requirements for private open space and significant reductions to the requirements for communal open space. These changes are to be implemented with a strong focus on subtropical design outcomes. The increased threshold for triggering community open space will assist in the delivery of smaller scale residential developments involving less than ten (10) units. Although, the private open space requirements are still impractical and would benefit from being aligned to housing typologies, rather than applying generic rates. We expect that Council will seek to uphold the new rates for development applications lodged under Version 10 of the City Plan and a stronger evidence base will be required to demonstrate the suitability of a performance outcome seeking reduced communal open space. |
Upper Coomera (Courtney Drive) precinct – Greenfield Expansion
This area identified as the Upper Coomera (Courtney Drive) precinct has been earmarked for greenfield expansion. This area will see varying dwelling densities ranging from 11 – 23 dwellings per hectare. This change is expected to deliver around 730 additional dwellings to the Gold Coast.
What does this mean? The Council has been investigating expansion areas to unlock greenfield development for some time. Given the housing affordability crisis, these 730 dwellings are a welcome addition to the Gold Coast housing supply, however with 14,000 people moving to the Gold Coast every year there is still more work to be done about how we plan for growth in our infill areas. Expansion areas have supported a significant amount of the growth on the Gold Coast in the last decade, however we can no longer continue to grow out and strategic planning focus must be on how can we unlock gentle density in our more urban areas, that benefit from high levels of existing amenity and infrastructure connectivity. |
Yatala Industrial Land
The City Plan seeks to remove the future industry precinct from 39 properties located in Yatala and change them to the correlating industrial zone. These properties have existing approvals and are appropriately connected to the necessary infrastructure.
The remainder of the 99 properties located within the future industries precinct do not have the necessary infrastructure available and therefore are remaining in the precinct.
Council have however, changed levels of assessment to include more land uses that are code assessable and anticipated within this precinct. The changes also include removal of the residential land uses as these are no longer considered to be accepted as complimentary to the future land uses of the industrial outcomes.
What does this mean? There is no doubt that the City’s industrial land plays a critical role in the ongoing growth of employment opportunities and diversification of the City’s economic base. The changes reflect the Council understanding the buyers confidence in code and impact assessable applications and seeking to provide buyer confidence in the land uses that are anticipated within these industrial precincts. The residential uses within these precincts have been removed. This makes it clear the Council does not anticipate residential activities to occur within this precinct and that it would conflict with the future industrial uses which are to establish within this precinct. We would encourage the Council to continue their investigations of industrial land and a key employment opportunity for the Gold Coast. |