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The Gold Coast council and Queensland government are at loggerheads over a major housing development proposed a stone's throw from the Titans' home ground.
The Miles government wants to build 2,750 homes on a flood plain next to Robina Stadium — the first project to be considered under the State Facilitated Development (SFD) pathway — but the council says it is too big and will overwhelm the suburb's roads, schools and hospital.
The SFD is a new fast-track approvals process that requires applications to be assessed within 75 business days and for the projects to start within two years.
The new project at Robina on the Gold Coast will include 2,750 homes. (Supplied: Place Design Group )
Master Builders Queensland said while the Lakesview project "ticks lots of boxes", the state government needed to fund expensive public infrastructure like roads, water and sewerage to get it off the ground.
"We're in a housing crisis, we need housing," Gold Coast regional manager Adam Profke said.
"It's a very, very complex balancing act and as we have said for a long time now, the housing crisis needs all three levels of government to come together to come up with a solution — this would be the ideal time."
Adam Profke says the government also needs to invest in essential public infrastructure. (ABC Gold Coast: Mackenzie Colahan)
Project is too large, council says
The council had approved 1,500 dwellings on the site and is urging the government to reconsider the increased density.
During a press conference on the weekend, the state's housing minister Meaghan Scanlon said the government increased the project's density off the back of industry feedback.
"Remove the barriers, speed up approvals and you'll fuel housing construction — that's what industry told us, so that's what we did," Ms Scanlon said.
20 per cent of the development, 550 units, will have to be affordable.
Councillor Dan Doran, who represents the community in the proposed development area, accused the government of electioneering for doubling the project size without upgrading the roads.
"This project was carefully calibrated to meet the infrastructure needs that we have," Cr Doran said.
"Our school is at 94 per cent capacity, the hospital in Robina is at absolute capacity, our road network is gridlocked.
"The competitiveness of our commercial district will be put at complete peril because people can't get on and off the M1."
It is not the first run-in between the state's housing minister and Gold Coast council over major developments in Ms Scanlon's home region.
Earlier this year, the minister intervened after the city rejected an application to build 380 homes on an abandoned golf course at Arundel.
Flood plain concerns
The Insurance Council of Australia stated it was also concerned about this latest proposal.
A spokesperson said the insurance council had long called for planning authorities to stop approving homes on flood plains.
"The days of developing on flood plains need to end and we welcome the development of a national standard that considers disaster and climate risk as part of land use planning processes," a spokesperson said.
"Under a risk-based approach in Queensland, any housing development in areas prone to extreme flood risk should not be permitted.
"In areas subject to high risk, stronger building codes and standards need to be employed or adequate resilience infrastructure built."
An artist impression of the proposed Lakesview development on a Robina flood plain. (Supplied: Walker Corportation)
To mitigate flood risk, the homes will be built on elevated pads, but Mr Profke said the project's complexity and a shortage of tradespeople meant it would be years before it was built.
"A lot of engineering work has to go into that so it's super technical," he said.
"Our only option at the moment is to boost density and boosting density is important where we have infrastructure to support it."