The final stage of the project would have connected Burleigh Heads to Coolangatta, with a stop at the city’s airport.<\/p>\n
Mr Bleijie said the project would not be completed due to construction workforce shortages, projected cost blowouts and community backlash from southern Gold Coast residents.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Southern Gold Coast residents spent years protesting the final stage of the light rail project. (ABC Gold Coast: Dominic Cansdale)<\/p>\n
A review by State Development, Infrastructure and Planning found stage four could cost between $5.7 billion and $9.8 billion.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Concerns voiced during the government’s community consultation period included changes to zoning, opening the area up to new development, and the local character of the area.<\/p>\n
Housing targets need to be met<\/p>\n
But Cr Tate said the city would continue to approve high-density developments in areas such as Palm Beach to meet its housing targets, set by the state government.<\/p>\n
The city’s population is expected to grow from about 650,000 to 1 million people by 2041.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Tom Tate says the city’s town plan will not change even though stage four of the light rail has been scrapped.\u00a0 (ABC Gold Coast: Dominic Cansdale)<\/p>\n
“Those people have got to go somewhere,” he said.<\/p>\n
“We’re not going to spread out because we’re not going to cut down trees.<\/p>\n
“The reality is there will be more buildings going up. People like to live by the coast and it’s the market that’s driving it.”<\/p>\n
Cr Tate said he would meet with the state transport minister to discuss options for the congested corridor.<\/p>\n
“I believe he’s been blindsided. He won’t have the solutions for me when we catch up,” Cr Tate said.<\/p>\n
Of the 5,662 community consultation submissions, 65 per cent were made by southern Gold Coast residents.<\/p>\n
Cr Tate said he was frustrated that a project designed for the entire city had been canned because of a “not in my backyard” campaign on the final stretch of the light rail line.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Construction of Light Rail 3 from Broadbeach to Burleigh is set to be complete by May 2026.\u00a0 (ABC Gold Coast: Dominic Cansdale)<\/p>\n
Save Our Southern Gold Coast’s Kath Down has spent years protesting against the final stage of the light rail.\u00a0<\/p>\n
She said she would continue to challenge over-development on the southern Gold Coast.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“Some developers might not be as keen, however the fight isn’t over,” she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Cars and buses instead of trams<\/p>\n
Urban planner Jake Storey agreed that dropping the final stage of the light rail would not have an effect on the density and development of the southern Gold Coast.<\/p>\n
He said the same amount of people would be moving in along the corridor, but they would be in cars and buses instead of on trams.<\/p>\n
“We will still be in the situation where development demand and housing demand is still going to be pushing for increased density and heights,” Mr Storey said.<\/p>\n
A bus depot will be built at Burleigh Heads to move rail commuters along the next leg of their journey. (ABC Open: David Rowe)<\/p>\n
The light rail will now end at Burleigh Heads.<\/p>\n
A bus depot that will need to cater to 11,000 daily commuters will be built in the popular beachside suburb.<\/p>\n
Mr Storey said placing the end of the light rail at Burleigh Heads would inevitably change the face of the suburb.<\/p>\n
“It just seems like a political stunt. [It] make no sense,” he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gold Coast Mayor Tom Tate says the state government’s decision to scrap light rail to the city’s airport…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":113088,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[25253,64,63,2485,80723,80724,78712,44,80725,78706,36565,80722],"class_list":["post-113087","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-airport","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-gold-coast","tag-gold-coast-airport-link","tag-gold-coast-light-rail","tag-light-rail","tag-news","tag-save-our-southern-gold-coast","tag-stage-4","tag-tram","tag-trams"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113087","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=113087"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113087\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/113088"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=113087"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=113087"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=113087"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}