Submission Royal Mail Gillespie_Weld

Proposed extension to existing Royal Mail Hotel
118 Poinciana Avenue Tewantin,
Application MCU23/0090

This document is our submission on this proposal.  We reside at Unit 7, The Inlet, 14-18 Blakesley Street, Tewantin.  Our home is across Blakesley Street from the subject land and immediately opposite the parking area for the hotel.

Background
We are pleased with the recent reports that the applicant has abandoned the proposed liquor store on the Blakesley Street frontage.  That building’s Northern alignment would have been approximately 30 metres from the boundary of Units 4 to 7 of The Inlet property and would have constituted a significant noise and privacy problem for the property owners.

We are not opposed in principle to the proposed development.  It is likely that the expanded hotel facilities in this very scenic site will be highly attractive to the public and restoration of the old hotel buildings is welcome.  However, we believe that there are significant potential impacts of the proposal that must be addressed and managed if it is to coexist successfully with the immediate area’s existing uses and social environment.

The overarching issue is that the redevelopment not only expands the range and the physical area of the hotel’s activities but it also directs their intensified impacts away from the non-residential zones of Poinciana Avenue and Diyan Street towards the intensely residential zone of Blakesley Street.  This will bring with it a suite of potential impacts.  These impacts need to be considered against the existing residential and recreational values of this zone.  We set out our concerns and suggestions in detail below.

Traffic management
We leave and return to our home by car or bicycle on Blakesley Street and we cross this street on foot to access most commercial and medical services.  We are concerned that the only vehicle access points to the proposed development are in Blakesley Street.  This will result in increased traffic on Blakesley Street which is already a busy secondary thoroughfare.  It will also add to the existing conflict between Woolworths’ customer traffic, Woolworths’ supply vehicle traffic, through traffic, Blakesley St residents’ traffic, pedestrian and cycle traffic.
Blakesley Street is particularly important for recreational cycle traffic.  It is heavily used by adult and child cyclists and at least four of Council’s designated Scenic Cycle Routes pass along the street.
Traffic issues could be decreased by:
relocating one or both of the development’s vehicle access points to Diyan Street;
traffic calming in Blakesley Street;
lowering the speed limit in Blakesley St.

Incorporating the proposed vacant lot on the corner of Diyan and Blakesley Streets into the development would facilitate the use of Diyan Street as an entry/exit point and would provide more parking spaces on the site.

Parking
The proposal will have major effects on parking in Blakesley Street.  Some of our fellow Blakesley Street residents are obliged to use the street for parking for themselves and their visitors.  The applicant’s amended documentation indicates that there will still be a significant loss from the approximately 100 parking spaces currently on the hotel site.  At peak times hotel clients will inevitably increase the pressure on Blakesley Street parking and on the parking on the Woolworths’ site provided for supermarket customers.
Parking is already an issue in the street.  Some of the current parking issues are as follows:
long stay parking is common;
when using Woolworths and other outlets, caravan, boat and campervan owners park preferentially in Blakesley St for long periods;
irresponsible parking behaviour – including impinging on residential access driveways.

Possible solutions for the inevitable parking problems include:
requiring basement parking on the redeveloped hotel site and/or incorporation of the proposed vacant lot at the corner of Diyan and Blakesley Streets into the development as outlined above;
marked no parking zones around residential driveways

Noise
There will be significant noise from the proposed beer garden, particularly when live amplified music is playing.
While we understand that a final determination about music and patron noise will be made by the Office of Liquor and Gaming, it is important to record our view that amplified outdoor music is going to represent a significant change to the soundscape of the area’s residential environment and will require management.  There should be a time limit of 10pm on amplified music.
There will also be an increased level of noise from vehicles arriving and departing from the parking area.  Hoon driving by patrons departing the current hotel and liquor store facilities is not uncommon.
General nuisance issues
Vehicle headlights will have a significant impact on the privacy of residences in Blakesley Street as patrons leave the hotel parking areas.  Relocating the hotel vehicle access points to Diyan Street would alleviate this problem.
Both the noise and vehicle headlight issues could also be attenuated by more intense landscape hedging on the Blakesley Street frontage of the property.  The applicant should be required to develop a workable solution.
Antisocial and noisy patron behaviour at closing times is an issue around all licenced premises.  The applicant should be required to demonstrate how these impacts on the residential values of Blakesley Street will be managed.
Heritage values
The site’s association with the settlement of the region, early contact between colonialists and First Nations people and its association with Cobb and Co should be acknowledged and celebrated with an onsite display within the old building.  It is a significant location in Tewantin’s history.
The current Liquorland outlet is of a very low architectural standard that is made worse by its garish colour.  It devalues this important corner site.  We are grateful that this building is to be removed from the landscape.
Thank you for the opportunity to comment and we wish the Council well with its deliberations.

Dan Gillespie

Mary-Jane Weld