2017-04-11 Planning & Environment Committee Agenda

PLANNING & ENVIRONMENT COMMITTEE MEETING AGENDA                                        11 APRIL 2017


    ‘Allowing the option of permanent occupancy in 19 of the 48 Beach Road Holiday Homes
      could be seen as a potential dis-benefit for Noosa North Shore’s collective pool of
      accommodation. However, in our opinion, this would be of a minor nature with little or no risk
      to the area’s overall visitor appeal and marketability for a number of reasons’, as summarised
      below:
      o     Allowing permanent occupancy does not preclude private letting
      o     A reduction in supply of visitor accommodation on site will benefit those who wish to
            continue with holiday letting (given the low occupancy)
      o     It would allow owners to split their time between homes or travelling.
The applicant’s consultant has looked at trends in tourist accommodation in Noosa using Trip
Advisor as a source (2016) for Noosa and the sub region of Noosa, but has not undertaken a longer
term analysis of tourism growth projections or the importance of tourism to the Noosa economy
over a longer period. Additionally, the report does not address the economic impact of the
proposed change of use.
Tourism has been for many years and continues to be the principal economic sector within Noosa.
The protection of this sector is important to Noosa, and protecting visitor accommodation is one of
those safeguarding measures. Beach Road Holiday Homes provide an alternative choice to other
visitor accommodation currently available on Noosa North Shore.
Economic Impacts
The loss of accommodation for tourists has the potential to impact on Noosa’s economy in the long
term, which is of concern given the importance of tourism to Noosa. Tourism is a major economic
focus for Noosa and therefore it is important to protect it from changes in market emphasis. It is
also important that there is a choice of visitor accommodation on the Noosa North Shore. The
strategic intent of The Noosa Plan, seeks to protect substantial key sites for visitor accommodation,
with the subject site identified as one of the key sites.
The draft Noosa Council Housing Needs Assessment prepared by Briggs & Mortar Pty Ltd, dated
November 2016 identifies economic impacts resulting from the loss of visitor accommodation.
The applicant’s consultant has looked at occupancy in tourist accommodation in Noosa for 2014-
2015. They determined that, given the unique nature of Noosa North Shore and its mix of cabin,
caravan and camping at one end of the spectrum and the upscale Beach Road Holiday Homes at
the other, direct comparison with other Noosa and Sunshine Coast accommodation markets and
occupancy levels is problematic.
The report concluded that given the collective pool of Noosa North Shore accommodation,
removing 19 homes from the visitor pool, there will be no discernible impacts for the Noosa North
Shore visitor market. It reported that budget visitor accommodation has a consistently high
occupancy rate on the Noosa North Shore and as an argument to support the change in use, the
Beach Road Holiday Homes were not an alternative for budget seeking visitors.
The report does not address the economic impacts associated with the conversion of the eco-
cabins from visitor accommodation to permanent residential. Additionally, it does not consider that
there is likely to be a substantial number of lock ups from the permanent occupation of the units
and it is possible, even likely, that tourists would spend at a higher rate compared with permanent
residents. Therefore, the proposed change is in all likelihood, to be a lower contribution to the
retail economy.
That aside, the applicant has not provided information to suggest that they have explored other
alternatives to addressing the low occupancy rate within the development. Alternatives to explore
could be reduced tariffs (it is noted that the tariffs are particularly high compared with other visitor
accommodation in the Shire, including Hastings Street), the reconfiguration of current layout of the
2 storey eco-cabins or the like.




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