Noosa VMU RFI Response Lodged 23.11.23 · MCU23/0078

       Retail businesses are continually having to adjust their business operations during periods when
       sales volumes fluctuate for a range of factors including tourism seasonality, the effects of weather
       conditions on visitor numbers, local competition faced by individual businesses, and a myriad of
       other factors. The analysis shows that impacts would be significantly below 10% across competing
       centres. This is within the range of fluctuation experienced by retailers during the normal course
       of business, and therefore it is unlikely that any staffing reductions would be made as a particular
       response to the added competition.

       Even for the existing Woolworths supermarket at Noosa Civic, which would experience a higher
       competitive impact, the store would still achieve sufficient sales to require a full staffing load.


Issue – Traffic Impact Assessment

A review of the Traffic Impact Assessment (TIA) prepared by SLR, dated May 2023, has identified several
areas where additional information is required to assess the application.

Information Required:

43.     Section 8 (Operational Assessment) of the TIA is to be updated to take account of the following
        factors:
        a) The TIA has been undertaken on the basis that assessment of impacts on operation of the broader
             road network is not required because, “the broader road network has been considered as part of
             the prior infrastructure agreement process”. It is not agreed that under the infrastructure
             agreement (IA) for the NBC that this provides for unlimited development potential. The proposed
             retail component of the development significantly exceeds the amount of retail development
             expected within the VMU Precinct (5D), such that the scale of uses proposed is beyond that
             considered under the IA. The TIA therefore needs to be updated in spatial scope to include
             impacts on the broader road network as reasonably expected for any development proposal.
        b) The analysis assumes background growth of 0.8%pa across the design horizon. While this
             might be appropriate for assessment of impacts on Walter Hay Drive, Eenie Creek Road, and
             Eumundi Noosa Road, it is not appropriate on the local roads that are currently included in the
             assessment. For example, “Main Street” was not open to public use with the base traffic counts
             of the assessment were undertaken, so the traffic counts did not indicate a background use of the
             street, and as a consequence of the methodology adopted, it has been assumed that there will not
             be any other use of the “Main Street” other than by the proposed development. However, now
             that that “Main Street” is open, it will carry through traffic, and in addition, there are significant
             areas of land within the business centre that will develop over the design horizon and thus
             introduce traffic to “Main Street”.
        c) The additional traffic count information that underpins the existing trip generation identified in
             Table 10 of the TIA should be included.
        d) The trip generation rates for the proposed development as quoted in Table 10 have not been able
             to be replicated using the information in Figure 12. Using the decay curve in Figure 12, indicates
             Thursday and Saturday traffic generation rates for the proposed expended development that
             would be 84% and 88% respectively of the existing development rates.
        e) The existing trip generation rates used in the assessment are based on traffic counts undertaken in
             May 2022, which is probably the least busy time of year at a shopping centre in Noosa. The existing
             trip generation rates derived from the May 2022 traffic surveys, should be factored to an
             appropriate design rate based on weekly door count data for the existing centre across a yearly
             period.
        f) Section 8.5.2 of the TIA quotes drop-in and diverted trip percentages that have been adopted in the
             assessment. It is highlighted that the information from which the proportions highlighted in the

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