A local mayor has described a suggestion from a chamber of commerce that the council has put the brakes on development as misleading.
Noosa mayor Frank Wilkie said the council had approved 96 per cent of the 750 development applications it had received since July 2023.
“In addition to this, 91 per cent of all material change of use and 98 per cent of operational works development applications were processed within statutory timeframes set by the state government under the Development Assessment Rules,” he said.
Cr Wilkie was responding to points raised by Noosa Chamber of Commerce president Ralph Rogers in a media release, in which he said it was “little wonder” the state government had enacted a development assessment process as an alternative pathway for development decisions.
The release followed news that two unit proposals, including one for 195 units at Noosa Junction, were being considered by the state government under a scheme to fast-track developments that have a 15 per cent affordable housing component.
Cr Wilkie has raised concerns about the Noosa Junction proposal being higher than allowed under the Noosa planning scheme, and queried the immediate and future affordability of the project.
Mr Rogers said Noosa’s planning scheme and corporate plan had many good values embedded in them but “rigid planning rules become obstacles instead of facilitating wellbeing”.
He said the Noosa Plan was treated by the council as “a non-negotiable decree instead of being used as one input to complex decision-making”, and that “one-size-fits-all rules” did not work.
“The planning scheme should be used as a directional document, a guide. Instead, it becomes a straitjacket,” Mr Rogers said.
The chamber release listed six Noosa council planning decisions that it said had “dysfunctional” outcomes.
It said the refusal of Aldi at Noosa Village Homemaker Centre had led to traffic problems on Weyba Drive; that the refusal of tourist accommodation applications at Settlers Cove and the RACV resort had pushed visitors towards short-term accommodation in residential areas; and that refusing a childcare centre at the Noosa Business Centre affected workers with children, particularly women.
The release also said the refusal of imaging services at Cooroy forced workers to drive elsewhere; that the council’s refusal of a Noosa Hospital expansion was reversed after a court appeal; and that affordable housing proposals for Noosa Heads, Tewantin and Cooroy had been refused instead of viable conditions being negotiated for their approval.
Mr Rogers said the council should give economic and social impact analyses as much weight as environmental and other impacts when assessing development applications.
“A big leap forward would be to include economic impact analyses to underpin council strategies and plans, and to impose economic and social benefit assessment of DA applications by council,” he said.
Cr Wilkie said the Noosa planning scheme was not a guide.
“The planning scheme is a substantial legal document, a piece of subordinate legislation under the Planning Act, that has successfully protected Noosa against many over-scale and inappropriately sited developments in the Planning and Environment Court,” Cr Wilkie said.
“The chamber’s suggestion that the planning scheme be used as a guide, if acted upon, would be to betray community expectations and weaken a commitment to delivering responsible development.”
The independent Member for Noosa, Sandy Bolton, has voiced her outrage at the state government’s State Facilitated Development pathway, saying local government should not be “over-ridden” without a rationale acceptable to the community.
“As I said in state parliament when the bill that allowed them was being debated, yes, we need affordable housing, but we also need the community alongside us in these efforts, and each project must be individually assessed with full consultation,” Ms Bolton said.
“We will not, cannot, support anything that doesn’t consult prior to notification in a meaningful way with local governments or proposals that don’t contain the details of these projects.”
Mr Wilkie described it as “unfortunate” that the chamber of commerce, as a key business organisation, would lend its support to a state government process that bypassed council, the community and the planning scheme.
Noosa Council’s director of strategy and environment Kim Rawlings said it was highly inaccurate to suggest the Noosa Plan did not reflect the shire’s economic and social aspirations.
“All planning schemes and amendments must integrate state government planning policy and satisfy the Minister for Planning to achieve sign-off by the state,” she said.
“Council is very supportive of achieving improved housing outcomes for our community as addressed in our comprehensive Housing Strategy, which was endorsed two years ago.
“This strategy has a range of actions underway to achieve these outcomes in a manner that aligns with community expectations.”
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