2014-02-25 Infrastructure & Services Committee Meeting Agenda

INFRASTRUCTURE & SERVICES COMMITTEE MEETING AGENDA                                 25 FEBRUARY 2014


PREVIOUS COUNCIL CONSIDERATION

This matter has not previously been considered by Noosa Council.

REPORT

Council has a legal agreement via the signed Deed of Gift to progress the location and use of
Tait Duke Cottage in the Tewantin area.

The Cottage has been temporarily located on Wallace Park since 2009. The Tait family would
like to see the Cottage used for the intended purpose for which it was donated to Council
(community purposes for the benefit of the Tewantin community). Although there is no critical
date for occupancy of the building, the longer the building is temporarily sited the more quickly it
is likely to deteriorate and be unavailable to use by the Tewantin community.

An Expression of Interest (EOI) process was undertaken in August 2010 by Sunshine Coast
Council (SCC) to ascertain if any community groups were interested in using the Cottage. There
were four submissions (Sunshine Butterflies, Noosa Residents and Ratepayers Association, Red
Cross Queensland, Noosa Shire Arts and Crafts). None of the submitters had land that the
Cottage could be permanently sited upon; nor did they demonstrate the capacity to refurbish the
Cottage.

As the Review of the Wallace Park Master Plan recommends the removal the Cottage from the
precinct and none of the EOI submitters having any land or other resources to invest in the
Cottage the Sunshine Coast Council determined it would review its own land holdings to see if a
suitable site for the Cottage in the general vicinity of Tewantin could be found which also met the
conditions in the Deed of Agreement (see attached Deed of Agreement – Attachment 1).

Four potential sites in the Tewantin locality were identified and referred for comments internally
within the Sunshine Coast Council. Cost estimates for the establishment of the Cottage on each
site (Attachment 2) were considered along with the constraints for each site. There was no
outcome from this process at the time and the matter was deferred by SCC to the new Noosa
Council.

Recently several community organisations have informally expressed an interest of late (outside
of the SCC EOI process) in the refurbishment and future use of the Cottage.

Subsequently Noosa Council officers have considered the four previously identified potential
sites whilst also considering other potential sites such as Read Park (next to SES facility) and the
Cooroy Lower Mill Site as alternative locations.

It is difficult to find a suitable site to locate the Cottage in Tewantin as all of the sites investigated
are constrained in some way. These constraints are detailed in the table below:

Site              Comment

Earl Street       The main constraints to the use of this land are its location in a flood hazard
                  area and its intended use for a road corridor in the long term. It is to be
                  noted that SCC Regional Strategy and Planning Department advised in
                  August 2012 that the proposed site is unsuitable as all of the lot in question
                  is required for the planned extension of Gibson Road through to Hilton
                  Terrace as reflected in Council’s Infrastructure Charges Plan. The charges
                  imposed on development are on the basis this road may be constructed.
                  This advice is still current.



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