2021-10-12 Planning & Environment Committee Meeting Agenda

PLANNING & ENVIRONMENT COMMITTEE MEETING AGENDA                                12 OCTOBER 2021


REPORT
The purpose of this report is to present final amendments to Noosa Shire Council Local Law No. 1
(Administration) 2015 and Subordinate Local Law No. 1 (Administration) 2015 for adoption to
introduce a new prescribed activity for short stay letting and home hosted accommodation. For the
purpose of this report, these amendments are collectively referred to as “the proposed local law”.
For the purpose of clarity, the local law does not address where short stay accommodation activities
can occur. That is the role of the planning scheme. The local law addresses how the impacts of
short term accommodation properties can be better managed.
1.    Background
During October – November 2019, Council undertook public consultation regarding a first draft of
the proposed local law for a period of three (3) weeks. 574 submissions were received which
identified a range of issues relevant to both the proposed local law and the then draft Noosa Plan
2020.
The proposed local law was put on hold following public consultation pending the outcome of a
State wide approach to managing short stay letting by the State government. With the advent of
Covid-19 however, the government’s priorities changed and the matter continues to be on hold.
As part of Council’s adoption of Noosa Plan 2020, Council again resolved to complete and
introduce the proposed local law.
At its meeting on 18 March 2021, Council resolved to undertake a second round of public
consultation on a revised version of the proposed local law, introducing a new prescribed activity
for short stay letting and home hosted accommodation.
The revised version of the proposed local law responded to a number of key issues raised during
the first round of public consultation as well as legal advice, stakeholder engagement and staff
review.
2.    Proposed local law
2.1   Proposed local law purpose
The purpose of the proposed local law is to regulate the ongoing operation of short stay letting and
home hosted accommodation to manage the negative impacts on residential amenity and guest
safety.
The proposed local law requires all properties undertaking short stay letting or home hosted
accommodation to obtain a one-off approval which will be the subject of annual renewal. Properties
must be lawful under accepted development requirements under Noosa Plan 2020, have a
development approval or lawful existing use rights.
Exemptions from the proposed local law are limited to sites identified in Noosa Plan 2020 as visitor
only, Hastings Street Mixed Use Precinct, hotels, motels, backpackers and traditional holiday
homes used by its owners and not short term let for commercial gain.
A local contact person must manage the short stay let property, be available 24/7, be located within
20 minutes travel time and respond to complaints within 30 minutes. A guest and complaints
register must be maintained.
Conditions of approval include a code of conduct for guest behaviour and use of the premises must
not detrimentally affect residential amenity including noise, overlooking and light spill and public
liability insurance is required. Under the code of conduct, guests must not display unacceptable
behaviour, vehicles must be stored to not cause a nuisance, pets and waste must be managed,
grounds kept tidy and sleeping or camping in a tent or caravan on site is not permitted.
The procedure for making complaints requires a complainant to call the contact person responsible
for the property and the contact person must respond to the complaint within 30 minutes and keep
a complaints register.

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