Poll says NO to high-rise on The Spit

Recently the Queensland Government commissioned a survey of peoples attitudes to development on The Spit. They refused to release the results and even the list of questions.

Because several of our members were surveyed we know that the questions were strongly biased towards supporting the proposed ASF casino development.

With the pro-development lobby claiming that the 'silent majority' favoured high-rise on The Spit (although the question didn't mention height) the Main Beach Association and Save Our Broadwater decided to commission our own ReachTEL survey on the night of 12 September.

The results were released the next day...just in time for the Planning Committee meeting.

The relevant question was "Do you support high rise towers on The Spit?"

And the answer was Yes 30.5%...No 58.6%...Undecided 10.9%.

The majority of people polled are against high-rise on The Spit.

It is a pity that our council seems to be losing its connection with the wishes and aspirations of the majority of ratepayers with Cr Caldwell reportedly talking up the likelihood of changes to the 3-storey height limit.

Some of the other findings of the ReachTEL poll are also interesting.

Poll says NO to high-rise on The Spit

Recently the Queensland Government commissioned a survey of peoples attitudes to development on The Spit. They refused to release the results and even the list of questions.

Because several of our members were surveyed we know that the questions were strongly biased towards supporting the proposed ASF casino development.

With the pro-development lobby claiming that the 'silent majority'favoured high-rise on The Spit (although the question didn't mention height) the Main Beach Association and Save Our Broadwater decided to commission our own ReachTEL survey on the night of 12 September.

The results were released the next day...just in time for the Planning Committee meeting.

The relevant question was "Do you support high rise towers on The Spit?"

And the answer was Yes 30.5%...No 58.6%...Undecided 10.9%.

The majority of people polled are against high-rise on The Spit.

It is a pity that our council seems to be losing its connection with the wishes and aspirations of the majority of ratepayers with Cr Caldwell reportedly talking up the likelihood of changes to the 3-storey height limit.

Some of the other findings of the ReachTEL poll are also interesting.

Council's concept of a cruise ship terminal

Not viable...enough spent already

Every experienced businessperson knows the value of market research.

It is commonsense to check out demand for a product before you spend serious money on a business venture. It is good business practice and just plain commonsense.

Carol Ann Edwards is one of our founding committee members.

On behalf of the Main Beach Association Carol decided to do some simple market research and wrote to Carnival Australia...the largest cruise ship line servicing the Australian market.

Carnival Australia wrote back to say that the decision to build a cruise ship terminal at the Gold Coast is for the council to decide and that its main focus is on the Queensland Government proposal for a dedicated cruise terminal in Brisbane.

You can read the full letter but this is essentially what they said...

Carnival Australia has made it clear that irrespective of whether a terminal is located on the Gold Coast we would consider it only for transit calls and Brisbane would always remain the natural turnaround port where cruises start and finish.

With this in mind, we welcome progress being made towards the establishment of a dedicated cruise terminal closer to the mouth of the Brisbane River at Luggage Point.

Such a facility would cater for the new generation of larger cruise ships and encourage Queensland's continuing growth as a strong source market for cruising and visits by our international ships.

Ann Sherry AO
Executive Chairman, Carnival Australia

This simple piece of market research might save the ratepayers $80 million of unwanted infrastucture not to mention the ongoing maintenance costs. Let's hope that the council hasn't spent a lot of ratepayer's money on this idea to date.

Well done Carol. Good business logic yet plain commonsense.

In our opinion it would be more constructive to let the Queensland Government spend the money and ongoing costs on a super-terminal that the Gold Coast can plug onto.

We suggest that Council prepare a business plan to attract and deliver cruise ship passengers to the Gold Coast through the proposed Luggage Point terminal.

That would be more cost-effective to ratepayers and is just good commonsense.

---

Grace on Coronation in Toowong

How iconic..They must be breeding

The not-so-unique Zaha Hadid concept for Sunland's project in Brisbane...Grace on Coronation.

The development comprises 555 apartments with three 37-storey towers in a 15-storey zone.

There were over 2,000 objections to the proposal which was approved by the Brisbane City Council.

An appeal against the approval has been heard and the parties are awaiting judgement which will probably be delivered in the new year.

We will keep you posted.

Future Gold Coast website lists Sunland Group and GCCC as major sponsors

Developers and Council to meet on future of the Gold Coast

This website has excellent contributions from demographer Bernard Salt on statistics and a vision of growth for the Gold Coast.

The Main Beach Association was excited to hear that there would be a meeting to discuss the future of the Gold Coast to be chaired by Tony Hickey from Hickey Lawyers scheduled for Saturday 08 October.

Apparently it was by invitation only and although we asked whether a representative of the Main Beach Association could attend we were politely refused. 

We wonder who actually attended, what was decided and whether the press were invited?

Beautiful one day...Shady the next

This is the caption of a recent cartoon by Matt Golding used to illustrate a story published in the Brisbane Times under the headline...Turnbull MP in new donations scandal as special corruption team investigates.

It is very sad to see our beautiful Gold Coast starting to take on an undesirable image based around allegations of secret political donations which might affect politicians acting impartially on important matters such as the Mariners Cove application.

Unfortunately this story has been widely reported in The Australian, The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald as well as in local print media and it doesn't seem to be fading away as there is an ongoing investigation by the Queensland Crime and Corruption Commission.

A bizarre twist to all of this are the widely-reported press feature articles surrounding a Gold Coast lobbyist, a federal MP, donations to federal and GCCC election campaigns, detention of two Australians in Dubai, and a property developer.

There is no chance that this story is going to fade away given the ongoing investigation by the Crime and Corruption Commission into the recent council elections.

Let's hope that Hollywood leaves it alone.

It isn't a good look for the Gold Coast.

Mythbusting #1...All development is good

It all depends on what you wish for. Some developments are better than others.

For instance a resort hotel will attract more people to come to the Gold Coast on a revolving basis rather than apartment owners who may or may not occupy their investment on a permanent basis.

Tourists use a broad range of services and spend to have a good time thus adding ongoing value to our economy while generating more visitations.

They are also less car dependendent so generate less parking requirements and less traffic.

So let's have more resort hotels and less apartments.

Some types of development are better than others.

Myth busted!