Special override powers are proposed for this empty Gold Coast golf course. But experts say it doesn't guarantee housing

The state government is set to make a call about the future of this former country club. (Supplied: Urbis)

As Australia’s housing crisis lurches on, bitter feuds are playing out for prized of parcels of land.

They’re the skirmishes between community groups, councils, developers, lawyers and planners about who gets to build what and where.

Home owners Adrienne and Glenn Pearson are in the thick of it.

They’re part of a group that amassed more than 700 neighbours for a court showdown against a housing development proposed for an abandoned golf course on prime Gold Coast land.

“We don’t want to have urban heat islands here like in Sydney,” Ms Pearson said.

“We want green space for future generations.”

Following a co-ordinated campaign, their local council unanimously rejected a developer’s plans to build on the site.

But the state government could step in to override the rejection through special powers under the Planning Act known as a ministerial call-in.

It enables the government to take over decision-making on development applications in “exceptional circumstances” when economic, environmental and public interests are at stake.

In a search to free up housing supply, Queensland Planning Minister Meaghan Scanlon has proposed to “call in” the defunct Arundel Hills Country Club, which covers 67 hectares.

“We need more homes and to do that we need to make sure we have diverse and affordable housing supply,” Ms Scanlon recently told parliament.

‘An acute shortage of land’

With public consultation on the minister’s call-in proposal ending on May 8, the Pearsons say it feels like a gut punch.

“The part that is difficult for us to stomach is that we’ve done all the right things,” Ms Pearson said.

“We’ve done the right processes. We were ready to go to court.”

The proposed notice says there is “an acute shortage of land for housing supply in the Gold Coast and significant limitations on expansion areas”.

It also acknowledges the 1,282 submissions received by the council about the site, and says Ms Scanlon will assess the site’s environmental values, including koala habitat.

If a decision is made to call in the land, opponents won’t be able to appeal against the developer’s plans to potentially build 368 lots that could house about 1,200 people.

The last time these exceptional powers were used in Queensland was for a power plant in the state’s central-west.

It was also used on the Gold Coast during 2015 for a housing development in the city’s west called SkyRidge.

The scale of the Worongary development is huge, about 60 hectares bigger than Sydney’s central business district.

With a potential residential population of 10,000 people, it could be filled with the town of Longreach about three times over.

Yet, no one lives there. It’s currently home to a collection of display houses.

“SkyRidge down the road that was called in by the state government 10 years ago and still there’s no housing there,” Mr Pearson said.

“I just don’t know what is of state significance to warrant a call-in [at Arundel].”

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Queensland University of Technology land use planning expert Mark Limb said developments like SkyRidge exposed the limitations of state government powers because they couldn’t compel developers to build.

“It doesn’t guarantee anything,” he said.

“This is where the state is going wrong somewhat.”

‘Fine tuning the private market’

Dr Limb said the government’s public works departments had been “hollowed out” over the decades, leaving the state primarily with regulatory powers.

He said this meant authorities approved or denied projects in the hope of “fine tuning the private market to hopefully guide it somewhere towards the direction of public interest”.

“As opposed to directly providing what is needed, which is housing,” Dr Limb said.

Ms Scanlon’s office declined an interview request ahead of the call-in decision.

However, she confirmed recently passed legislation meant the government could compel developers to include social and affordable housing in developments.

Ms Scanlon said they could also be used on any redevelopment of the Arundel site.

“I’m not going to pre-empt any decision. Obviously, that’s still out for consultation at the moment,” she said.

“What I would say more broadly is the bill we just passed in the parliament allows me now to condition social and affordable housing as part of developments.”

‘This is about sending a message’

Developers for the Arundel site have declined to comment.

Griffith University Cities Research Institute director Paul Burton said the call-in proposal could be designed to send a message across the state.

“In my view, this is about sending a message to all local governments,” he said.

“It’s not just about the Arundel golf course.

“It signifies the importance that the state government is attaching to house building or dwelling building.”

City of Gold Coast Deputy Mayor and Chair of Planning Mark Hammel said it was a “bold decision” from the state government because the Arundel golf course was considerably smaller than other projects called in.

Cr Hammel pointed to an earlier development where state government powers were used, Jewel, which is home to hundreds of empty apartments in Surfers Paradise three years after being built.

“They were two major projects [SkyRidge and Jewel] that, between them, probably delivered 5,000-plus dwellings, so you can kind of understand the normal scale that projects are called in at,” he said.

“They’re not powers that the state government use very often, so we’re interested to see how this one plays out.”

He argued that, while the golf course was closed to public access, the planned development would take away green space in the city.

“Our open green space, and our existing suburbs are a really important part of what makes the Gold Coast the Gold Coast,” Cr Hammel said.

“It’s not like there’s nowhere else in the coast for these dwellings to go.”

Ms Pearson feels it’s only a matter of time before houses are built on the land and they may come at the expense of the area’s lifestyle.

“We firmly believe that some kind of development will probably happen here. We’re realistic about that,” she said.

“We just have to wait and see.”