MCU15/0122 - PM Submission Support - Alex Harris

Subject: Application MCU15/0122
From: Alex Harris
Date: 2016-06-30T05:59:32+00:00
To: Mailbox Council Mail

I saw a public notice on this development and would like to submit my comments for your consideration.

We have the need and an opportunity to make Noosa a centre of excellence for health and aged care services, delivering health solutions and improved outcomes for the population, broadening our economic base, and bringing much needed higher paying jobs to the area.

1.  We have a two-fold economic problem - an ageing population and an economy entirely dependent upon tourism.  Tourism & Hospitality is not a high paying industry sector with mostly casual employment.  Our ageing population is increasingly in need of medical attention with such medical needs currently not met within Noosa.  As a real estate agent, I have sold properties for older people who moved here 15 or so years ago expecting to live out their days in Noosa.  But there is no local oncology, no cardiology, no stroke, no cosmetic, mental health or palliative care specialties/facilities, and only limited nursing and residential aged care facilities in Noosa.  My clients were sick of travelling to Brisbane for treatment every week and ended up selling their Noosa home to move closer to essential health care.

2.  In every town in which we have a hospital, the surrounding area logically and necessarily redevelops as a medical precinct and councils and state government work to achieve that.  There are precedents in Cooroy, Gympie, Nambour and now Kawana.  All of it driving economic resurgence, jobs, and new housing.  But in Noosa we have to-date by way of our rigid Noosa Plan, prohibited such redevelopment, insisting on maintaining the area around our tiny hospital as solely residential detached housing, even as the increase of traffic on Goodchap Street, as a linkage between Tewantin and Noosaville, has increased to the extent that the residential amenity has been significantly degraded.  Thus devaluing the properties on Goodchap Street specifically and making it extraordinarily difficult to sell them to new home owners.

3.  As an older residential area, it does not present well with many properties are run down and needing repair, but in many cases to do so would be over capitalising given the current situation.  Allowing a material change of use to medical services for this site, and ideally the length of Goodchap Street from the Hilton Terrace through to the existing medical/education centre on the corner of Eumundi Noosa Road is a logical and necessary step to allow these residents to obtain fair value for their properties when they sell.  It would allow for expansion of the hospital if so required, and the expansion and enhancement of services offered to Noosa residents beyond those proposed for this site.

4,  But don’t stop there.  My recommendation would be to rezone the secondary streets (Val Crescent, Ridge Street, Juron Street, June Cres etc) to low-density attached housing, providing for nursing and retirement home and residential apartments/townhouses for staff, saving on traffic and parking congestion for medical facilities, and maintaining values and exit strategies for existing residents - mostly long-term and older residents who themselves would benefit from the addition of residential aged care and medical facilities.   It is the greener, cheaper and more economically viable option than that of bulldozing more trees and expanding outward for more residential development.

5.  If we want young people to stay in Noosa, if we want more and better jobs, older people to be able to stay in the area, more affordable housing and we want to encourage more people to walk to shops and services rather than drive, then we need to have mixed-use infill development with new services and a range of housing options.  It would go a long way to sating the appetite for permanent unit living without decimating holiday stock and resort managers’ livelihoods.

I would urge Council to approve this development and to take on board my recommendations for further redevelopment of the area for the same purpose.

With thanks,



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