Gold Coast City Council
Lawlor served as a Gold Coast City Councillor for two terms up to 1994; he chaired the Council's Planning Committee for three years. During his time on Council Lawlor campaigned on environmental issues and to preserve the Gold Coast Broadwater.
At the time Gold Coast City Council had nine Aldermen and a Mayor. Areas to the north and west of the Gold Coast came under the separate Shire of Albert until the amalgamation of the Council and Shire in 1995.
In March 1988 Peter Lawlor was elected as Division 3 Alderman. At the same election new Mayor Alderman Lex Bell ousted former Mayor Denis Pie. Lex Bell would go on to be elected as the independent Member for Surfers Paradise at a by-election in 2001 soon after Lawlor's own election to Parliament.
Lawlor and Bell were both re-elected in the March 1991 election for a second term. At this election the previously all male Aldermen were joined by three new women Adlermen
As Alderman for the Southport area Lawlor campaigned for the preservation of The Spit as "one of the few undeveloped areas on the Gold Coast". Lawlor blamed the previous Waterways Authority and previous State Government for approving resorts that the Council did not want to go ahead, neither had required Council approval. Vacant land to the south of the Sea World car park was zoned as special purposes under the draft development control plan and could have been developed with a low rise resort or international hotel. Chairman of the Finance Committee of Gold Coast City Council was concerned about valid compensation claims against the Council from developers if previous approvals were revoked now that they came under Council control.
Lawlor, Bell and Gary Baildon were the only three Aldermen to vote against the amalgamation of Gold Coast City and Albert Shire.
In 1996 after Bell and Lawlor had been ousted by the new Ray Stevens administration, Stevens proposed a relocation of the Gold Coast Indy Grand Prix from Surfers Paradise to Southport. Lawlor teamed up with the new Premier Rob Borbidge together with local National Party MP and racing driver Allan Grice to oppose the proposed relocation. As the former Planning Committee Chairman Lawlor said that the previous council had decreed that no further commercial development or reclamation of the Broadwater would take place. Mayor Stevens responded that the policy direction of the previous council was irrelevant. Borgidge indicated that the State Government would never support the proposal to reclaim any part of the Broadwater.
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