2018-05-14 General Committee Meeting Agenda

GENERAL COMMITTEE MEETING AGENDA                                                       14 MAY 2018


Noosa Waterfront Restaurant Use of Reserve Land
Noosa Waterfront Restaurant (NWR) has continued to seek ongoing commercial use of 102m 2 of
recreation reserve land adjacent to its premises to conduct functions. Submissions were received
to both rounds of community consultation and a number of previous formal Council
considerations relate to the issue.
Petitions both supporting and objecting to NWR’s use of the reserve land were received in the
latest consultation but no significant new issues or grounds for support were raised.
As previously reported, the applicable State policy is DNRME’s Secondary use of Trust land
under the Land Act (Ref. PUX/901/209SLM/2013/493 dated 2 May 2017 and accessible at
https://www.dnrm.qld.gov.au/%3Fa%3D109113:policy_registry/secondary-use-of-trust-land.pdf ),
which states:
One of the principles under the object of the Land Act is that "if land is needed for community
purposes, the land [is retained] for the community in a way that protects and facilitates the
community purpose".
Approval should not be given for a trustee lease or trustee permit which:
    is an inappropriate use for the purpose and qualities of the trust land; or
    is not in the public interest; or
    is substantially exclusive and/or commercial in nature.
In regard to exclusivity and commerciality the policy states:
A "stand-alone commercial enterprise", for the purpose of the policy, is one which obtains the
majority of its business from customers who are not necessarily reserve users e.g. passing trade
on a highway adjoining a reserve. Use of community purpose trust land by a stand-alone
commercial enterprise that makes a profit for the benefit of the owner or shares the profits with
private shareholders is inconsistent with the purposes of the community purpose trust land and
will not be allowed.
To guide decisions about secondary use of trust land the policy states the following five (5)
criteria can be used:
Strategic value - the proposed use should be appropriate to the strategic value of the land's
capabilities;
Consistency with primary use (if applicable) - the proposed use should be consistent with the
designated purpose of the trust land and should also facilitate or enhance, not diminish, the
purpose of the trust land;
Commerciality - the strength of the commercial motive behind the proposed use and whether it
will have a negative effect on the public interest, needs consideration;
Exclusivity - refers to secondary occupation which excludes use by the wider community; and
Incremental progression and forward planning - the proposed use may contribute to an
incremental chain of events that lead to a final outcome quite different from that initially intended.
NWR’s commercial use of the land does not align with any of the criteria and raises significant
conflicts with the primary reserve purpose, commerciality, exclusivity and incremental
consequences criteria.
Council officers maintain the following advice:
    Formal tenure and a development approval for a material change of use are required to
      allow the ongoing function centre use;
    Providing NWR, or any other commercial business, tenure over the recreation reserve land
      is not supported because:



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