2015-09-15 Planning & Organisation Committee Agenda

PLANNING & ORGANISATION COMMITTEE MEETING AGENDA                                     15 SEPTEMBER 2015


Issues                                                           Comments
Environment
The expansion would impact unfavourably on the                   The development footprint within the NBC site
environment.                                                     has been committed for development, with areas
Environmental catastrophe. We don’t need large natural           of highest ecological importance previously
areas cleared just to become hot sweaty, void of trees           dedicated for conservation. The development
empty car parks. Don’t run beautiful Noosa into a shocking       does not raise insurmountable environmental
car park.                                                        conflicts and the applicant intends to pay
More native vegetation and wildlife habitat should not be        financial offsets to vegetation clearing.
destroyed to create another dreary concrete shopping
centre and car park.
A major problem with this centre is it relies heavily for
visitation on the motor car which is an acknowledged
negative for the environment. Perpetuating this need only
increases the burden and reliance on other infrastructure
such as roads.
The proposed development will mean loss of already
endangered habitat for koalas by destroying a large amount
of ever diminishing native forest, and compound possible
koala extinction on the Sunshine Coast. Given koalas are
already threatened on the Coast, further endangerment of
the species must be prevented. The koala is one of our
national icons, and must be protected from what at best is
another unneeded shopping mall.
The destruction of habitat proposed by the developer
clearly conflicts with The Noosa Plan.
Environmental impacts of the Noosa Civic Proposal conflict
with the key definition of ecological sustainability as noted
in the SPA 2009.
Noosa cannot afford further loss of habitat, and a new larger
shopping centre will place pressure on Council to open new
greenfield housing sites to sustain the traders should the
shopping centre fail to perform financially
The Noosa Civic centre is in an environmentally sensitive
area that borders onto Eenie Creek. Eenie Creek flow
directly into Lake Weyba. Any increase in noise, air or solid
waste pollution to this area may have a detrimental effect
on the health of Lake Weyba and the Noosa River
waterways.


Amenity
On an environmental level, the Noosa Civic is a very ugly        Arbour and entrance canopy works are proposed
unappealing structure; they could have made it quite             to improve the appearance of the existing
beautiful and taking in all the flora and fauna on the land it   shopping centre frontage and are supportable.
inhibits. It’s poor planning, concrete structure with no
positive energy. It drags down Noosa’s image. It is a cold       The shopping centre expansion is considered to
and uninviting concrete box with no warmth or design             substantially duplicate the existing retail centre.
savvy.                                                           However, its design is considered to better
Stage two would simply create more of the same (standard         respond to Noosa’s design principles.
shopping centre), with expanded tarmac car parks and
outsized buildings, with the associated traffic, noise and
pollution.
Trade Area
If the expansion were to proceed, there will always be           Noted but not a consideration of this assessment.
pressure to develop and expand local population centres to
provide a customer base to improve the viability of the civic    Infrastructure and long-term planning conflicts
precinct.                                                        are raised in this report.

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