2019-09-12 Special Meeting Agenda

SPECIAL MEETING AGENDA                                                         12 SEPTEMBER 2019


Furthermore, the operation of short stay letting means the provision, or making available, on a
commercial basis, of short stay letting.
Importantly, short stay letting under the local law does not include hosted short term
accommodation such as a bed and breakfast or rural cabins. Home hosted includes when the
property owner is on site and lets out a bedroom or studio for short term letting. Home hosted does
not require approval under the local law.
1     Background
Noosa Shire has a long history of holiday houses and units which were generally clustered around
the coastal, lakes and river areas. Traditionally, houses and units were mostly either left vacant or
rented out to holiday makers between owner/family/friend stays.
While this situation continues, over time and partly as a result of the ease of renting short term
accommodation created by well-known online booking platforms, houses and units have been
purchased as commercial investments purely for the short term accommodation rental pool and in
some cases absentee owners managing the premises. This has significantly contributed to an
increase in and a ‘creep’ of short term accommodation into some traditional permanent residential
neighbourhoods. Given that some of these properties are poorly managed, and without regulation,
negative impacts have occurred to surrounding residents.
It is not the purpose of this report to outline the impacts of online booking platforms, but the impacts
are well known globally, which Noosa Shire is not immune to. However, some of the planning and
use issues associated with the ‘creep’ of short term accommodation into residential areas include,
but are not limited to, loss of amenity, potential loss of sense of place, residential displacement
and effects on housing choice and affordability. There is generally a clear distinction between the
amenity expectation of a permanent resident and that of a visitor.
While the draft Planning Scheme proposes to regulate the land use (short term accommodation),
the operation of short term accommodation is proposed to be regulated by amending Council’s
Local Laws to include a new prescribed activity, being the operation of short stay letting.
The Local Law can effectively regulate the operation of short stay letting and efficiently address
complaints and operational impacts. In this regard, the Local Law is framed in a way which requires
the owner or a ‘contact person’ to be responsible for the operation of the property and are the first
point of call. This places the responsibility on the owner or contact person to uphold the approval
conditions. Should the conditions not be met, then Council can take appropriate action.
Many properties that have been used consistently for short stay accommodation will have existing
land use rights, this means that they will not require an approval under the planning scheme.
However, those dwelling houses and multiple dwellings with existing lawful use rights will still need
Local Law approval from the time of Local Law gazettal. This is a new process for these properties
and is proposed to ensure properties used for short term letting are appropriately managed and
minimise or eliminate the associated impacts on residents and residential neighbourhoods.
Dwelling houses and multiple dwellings with lawful existing land use rights are not subject to the
new draft planning scheme provisions for short term accommodation. The superseded planning
schemes did not contemplate the influx of short term accommodation that has occurred and as
such do not sufficiently address issues associated with the use. Without the new Local Law,
existing short stay letting premises would largely remain unregulated. It has become clear through
the draft Planning Scheme consultation process that this issue needs to be managed and many
people in the community indicated to Council a desire for greater and better management of short
stay letting particularly in residential neighbourhoods.
2     Existing Lawful Use Rights
While many short term accommodation premises will require a Local Law approval for short stay
letting, most short term accommodation will not require a planning approval because Chapter 7,
Part 1 of the Planning Act 2016 protects the lawful use of premises when there is a change to a
planning instrument (e.g. a new planning scheme). It should be noted that existing lawful use rights

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