PROTECT OUR SCHOOL ZONE
STOP HIGH-RISE DEVELOPMENT OF BENOWA GARDENS SHOPPING CENTRE
Objections Close 19-DEC-25
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Urgent Action. Say No!
“Benowa Gardens Shopping Centre is facing a drastic transformation into a high-density mega precinct, featuring three 59m high residential towers with up to 1350 bedrooms, a hotel, commercial office spaces, and a retail space buried beneath. This scale of development is to maximise developer profits and cause chaos for the community.”
Don’t be fooled. Hear the facts.
Watch video
Public Notification.
The developer is not proposing a “village”. They are proposing a three-tower high-density complex perched on top of an enormous concrete podium megastructure.
This is a complete demolition and multi-year rebuild of Benowa Gardens into a dense urban block, far more suited to the tourist zones than a school and hospital precinct.
This complex would dominate the site and the surrounding neighbourhood. Its scale and footprint would fundamentally change the character of Benowa.
Building Height
Did you know the Corporate Centre in Bundall stands 59 metres tall across 17 storeys?
Now imagine not one, but three buildings of that scale replacing our small neighbourhood shopping centre.
The developers are also seeking an RD8 residential density, which allows one bedroom per 13 square metres of site area. On this site, that equates to roughly 1,350 bedrooms and a population potential of well over 2,000 people. This represents a dramatic intensification for a neighbourhood centre surrounded by schools, hospitals and low-rise residential streets.
This proposal turns our local centre into the guinea pig for a high-rise “urban village” experiment, yet there is nothing village about three towers, thousands of residents and a concrete podium replacing a neighbourhood shopping centre.
Corporate Centre Bundall – Height 59m – 17 storeys
Misleading
This is not what is being built. They are misleading concepts of what could built and are solely for misleading marketing. Neither do they represent the true scale of 59m in height.
10% Percent Community Benefit – 90% High-Rise Profit Machine
The developers carefully worded application says it “may” build any of the permitted uses on the site. If the developers did deliver the plans outlined in their “Plan of Development” those “Concept Plans” shows less than 10% is dedicated to retail shops for the existing communities.
It is a rezoning exercise designed primarily to create a high-density residential precinct that totals over 106,000 square metres of built floor area across the 3 residential towers and five basement/podium levels.
Of that, less than 10% (only about 10,000 square metres) is allocated to community retail shopping.
The purpose of the remaining over 90% is to service the 1000+ new residents of the towers and the hotel and commercial tenancies above.
For the current community, the local shops would no longer function as a convenient neighbourhood centre because they would sit underneath a residential megastructure whose design is geared toward its new private population rather than the people who rely on the centre today.
Three high-rise towers
Up to 17 storeys, rising out of a heavy slab-like podium. These towers would overshadow neighbouring schools, homes and hospital buildings. They introduce a city-scale skyline into a low-rise suburban environment.
More than 400 apartments
Packed into a small footprint, transforming a quiet community centre into a major residential high-density node. This brings hundreds of new residents, vehicles and daily movements into an area already strained by school and hospital traffic.
41 room Hotel/Short term accommodation
Effectively turning Benowa Gardens into a hotel precinct, introducing transient visitor turnover in the middle of school zones and directly opposite a hospital.
A huge podium over multiple basement levels
A multi-storey concrete base holding more than a 1,400 car parks. The majority of these spaces are allocated to residents of the towers and to commercial and staff parking . This podium on its own would overshadow the existing centre in bulk and footprint, and the three towers are then built on top of this monolithic structure.
Commercial and health tenancies
Large office floors, medical uses, gyms and more. This draws even more daily car trips and adding further pressure to the Ashmore Road corridor.
Underground Retail Space
A supermarket and retail shops buried beneath layers of concrete, with retail functioning mainly as a token underground inclusion intended to justify the massive towers above.
A high-rise island in the middle of schools and a hospital
The Benowa Gardens site is completely encircled by schools, childcare and a major hospital:
- Benowa State High School, directly opposite – capacity for 2,268 students
- Benowa State School, directly opposite – around 896 students enrolled
- St Kevin’s Catholic School, adjoining the State School – around 600 students
- Sunkids Children’s Centre, on Ashmore Road directly opposite – licensed for 103 children
- Pindara Private Hospital, opposite – a 348-bed acute care hospital.
The proposal would inject hundreds of new apartments, hotel rooms and commercial tenancies into the middle of this already busy health and education hub, dramatically increasing traffic and congestion on Ashmore Road, Benowa Road and Carrara Street.
This single site could add around 2,000 to 3,000 extra people on a busy day, on top of the more than 4,200 students, young children and hospital patients already concentrated within a few hundred metres, not including teachers, hospital staff, visitors and local residents.
This raises serious questions about:
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Child safety around school drop-off and pick-up
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Ambulance and emergency access to Pindara Hospital
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Congestion and crash risk at already stressed intersections
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The impact of high-rise towers looming over school grounds and hospital wards
Objections Close 19-DEC-25
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Read More About the Benowa Gardens Redevelopment
Cr Mark Hammel on the future of the Gold Coast
I am aware that an application in Benowa has been lodged with the city and look forward to a thorough assessment by our City’s development team. Many neighbourhood centres on the Gold Coast are on large sites, often spanning up to 10,000 sqm, and are primarily under private ownership. These...