My Noosa Plan Submission

Thank you for the opportunity to provide feedback on the New Noosa Plan. Frankly, navigating the plan and taking time out to write a response has been an extremely consuming endeavour – most people just don’t have the time, resources or willpower to respond.

I believe Noosa Council could do a lot more to make the process easier and more enjoyable through placemaking workshops. If that approach had been taken from the start, the draft plan would look a lot different – and better.

Having attended two community meetings, one with mainly local residents (Noosa Residents and Ratepayers Association at Noosa Lions Club) and another predominantly attended by the real estate / short term let community at the Noosa Tigers AFL Club, it is clear Noosa Council is between a rock and a hard place when it comes to satisfying community needs. I hope that it can negotiate a middle way.

How the plan affects me personally

I live at Sunrise Beach. We purchased the house six years ago as a family home rather than an investment. We needed a place that could cater for two teenagers at present but where we could care for elderly parents if we need to in future. My husband and I also work from home a lot of the time and we required dedicated office space.

We generally welcome visitors to our neighbourhood and believe a mix of residents and visitors make the place more interesting. I often bump into foreigners and start conversations on my daily walks to the beach, and I believe we should foster a more culturally diverse society that embraces differences.

Our home offers many opportunities, whether we want to short term let or continue to host international students. It’s a way to introduce our kids to cultural diversity and it helps to pay some bills.

According to the plan for my area:

A self-contained secondary dwelling (like a granny flat) is allowed as part of a dwelling house providing it has a maximum gross floor area of 65m² and has no more than 2 bedrooms. This can’t be used for short-term visitor accommodation. Home-based businesses including bed and breakfast accommodation may establish in the Low Density Residential zone. Visitor accommodation in the form of holiday homes may locate east of David Low Way as identified in the Short Stay Area Map. The Medium Density and High Density Residential zones accommodates a greater diversity in housing types including dual occupancies and multiple dwellings.

So, if we decide to separate the downstairs area and turn it into a granny flat to provide for future needs, we won’t be allowed to use it for short term visitor accommodation which would help to pay for the changes we want to make.

People’s lives are fluid and go through many different stages in which our homes need to adapt to changing circumstances. Noosa Council should make it easier for residents to be able to adapt easily. Remote working is on the rise and we will see more people with families being able to live and work here rather than Sunrise Beach becoming a kind of retirement village.

“Outside of the Short Stay Area a planning application is required for short-term accommodation in the Low Density Housing zone and is subject to impact assessment. Within the Medium Density Residential Zone short-term accommodation is permitted subject to a code assessment application within the Short Stay Area and requires an impact assessment application outside that area.”

I believe the proposed zoning for short term lets is an elitist approach which will further separate the haves from the have-nots. The less lines we draw between people, the more inclusive our society will be. It also adds complication where what we need is simple systems that are easy to understand.

Personally I believe the controversy around short term lets seems to be a management issue which could be addressed through a code of conduct rather than zoning.

Perhaps Noosa Council could have a voluntary system where people register to short term let their homes. It needs to be an easy process with a registration fee and the income derived from the license funding a few compliance officers on call 24/7 to handle complaints.

The complaints number could then be promoted widely so neighbours can call and know that someone will address the issue. It would also provide peace of mind for home owners who obviously don’t want their homes trashed with parties any more than the neighbours want to listen to the trashing. The Council could provide other incentives that would make it more attractive for people to sign up.

License fees would also help fund infrastructure which seems to be struggling to keep up with growth in the region. My neighbour tells me our street hasn’t been paved for more than 20 years, we have no footpaths and the bikeways to our local school don’t provide safe access for our kids.

Observations around my suburb

The development outcomes for the Coastal Communities Local Plan Area states that:

“Development recognises and reflects the sensitivity of the coastal environment and the close relationship between the natural landscape and character of the area and its attractiveness to residents and visitors. Development will be consistent with, and not compromise, this close association. Development is subservient to the natural landscape. It sits lightly within the landscape, sensitively responds to the topography of the area and provides densely landscaped settings, with existing mature trees and vegetation retained wherever possible. The extent of clearing for structures, services and access, is limited and buildings are relatively small.”

Over the past year, I have witnessed significant changes in our local community which don’t adhere to the stated objectives of the plan. Within a 500 metre radius of my home, four family homes have been completely or partially demolished to make way for mansions that now almost cover the complete land area (see image below). In all cases, existing gardens were destroyed to provide a “clean slate” for the monstrosities that are in no way subservient to or consistent with the natural landscape.

As an example, the house across the road from us (pictured below), does not sit lightly within the landscape, neither does it “sensitively respond to the topography of the area” or “provide densely landscaped settings”. It’s also not relatively small.

The local family that lived in the house prior to the upgrade had to move from the area because they couldn’t find affordable housing nearby. The same thing happened with the family that lived behind us. Now this house has been sitting empty for months because of the $2.4 million price tag, too much for a local family, and who wants to live in a high maintenance showcase rather than a home?

In addition, its high vantage point over the rest of the suburb leaves us exposed to excessive noise. The owner mows the lawn three times a week, sprays the lawn with pesticides and blows leaves onto the road. The run off from this garden can’t be good for waterways, yet this is the type of development we see more and more instead of the simple, older style homes blended into the natural environment.

I would like to see the new plan include stricter guidelines around land clearing and perhaps somehow enforce a minimum amount of permeable land left to allow better drainage.

Council should also encourage or fund programs that encourage native gardens that will provide food and better connections for local wildlife. It’s astounding that NICA’s grant applications for such a program is always knocked back when it can really help counter the negative effects of the building boom in our region.

Sunrise Shops

The plan states:

“By comparison Sunrise Beach has a much higher proportion of permanent residents in both detached houses and pockets of multi-unit housing. Around Ben Lexcen Drive a mix of commercial and community uses, including convenience shopping, schools, childcare and other community facilities serve the day to day needs of residents, particularly families. Development at Sunrise Beach neighbourhood centre provides a mix of commercial and community uses including convenience shopping, schools, other community facilities located in Ben Lexcen Drive serving the convenience needs of residents. Higher order services locate in the local centre of Peregian Beach, or the district centres of Noosa Junction and Noosaville.”

Apart from being a poorly worded paragraph, the truth is that the Sunrise Beach neighbourhood centre is completely dated and, as a Council owned facility, can provide much better services to the local community. Again, a placemaking workshop would highlight many opportunities to improve connectivity and provide a safe space for young people to hang out, something which is severely lacking across the Shire, but in particular around an area that hosts a cluster of schools and many sporting facilities.

Although higher order services are provided in the Junction, it would be great to be able to walk or ride to local shops to buy affordable, healthy food in a community friendly environment – especially since 500 extra people will be squeezed into the small cul de sac next to and behind the shops. Expecting all these people to fill their “higher order needs” elsewhere will create a traffic nightmare in an already congested area. Truly bad planning!

Although approved prior to the new plan, I question how the development of the Blue Care facility sits within the plan to “provide densely landscaped settings with mature trees and vegetation retained wherever possible” when more than 5 hectares of mature wallum bushland will be clear felled and a vulnerable species put at risk. The plan states that the “extent of clearing for structures, services and access is limited and buildings are relatively small.” Are they really?

Local Government Infrastructure Plan / Transport

“Transport Development facilitates safe and convenient pedestrian and cycle connections between and around key destinations.”

Infrastructure seems to be lagging behind and I fail to see any effective planning action to address this. Other than the 775 metres of new pathway scheduled along Wollomia Way – Orient Drive to Dame Pattie Drive at a cost of $250,000, there seems to be no further forecast or planning to provide safer bicycle infrastructure to the cluster of schools and community facilities in the Sunrise Beach area for the next ten years or more.

I note that the cost to the community of the new Blue Care development will be quite significant, with the need for a bio retention basin, infiltration basin and dispersion bund on Grasstree Court / Ben Lexcen Dve at $421,880 and more than $2 million to upgrade the Ben Lexcen Dr / Eenie Creek Rd intersection to cope with all the extra demand. That stings, given that the development will also see the clear felling of more than 70 feed trees for the vulnerable Glossy Black Cockatoos and impact on the biodiversity of the area.