2021-09-13 General Committee Meeting Agenda

GENERAL COMMITTEE MEETING AGENDA                                                 13 SEPTEMBER 2021


and the current master plan within the Noosa Plan 2006 known as the Shire Business Centre precinct
map (see figure 9).
The site has partly been developed with the Noosa Civic established in October 2006 as Stage 1.
Stage 1 involved the establishment of a discount department store based shopping centre of
approximately 23,900m2 gross floor area, along with 7,000m2 gross floor of retail showrooms, a
service station and 4,925m2 gross floor area of commercial office space. As part of the approval for
Stage 1, Lot 3 SP182845 was dedicated as open space to the State.
In 2003, the applicant entered into an Infrastructure Agreement which in part provided for
infrastructure items to be provided by the applicant for the existing and future development of the
land in total. The agreement also included dedication of land as road reserve and for public open
space purposes. Furthermore, the agreement provided that there would be no requirement for
contributions to be paid (by way of conditions imposed on any application) nor pay infrastructure
charges associated with the future development of the land provided that the intensity of
development of a future stage did not exceed that envisaged by MP2.
A Stage 2 development was approved by Council in 2008 and comprised four office buildings with a
combined gross floor area of 7,701m2. This development never proceeded and has since lapsed.
A development application for a major shopping centre expansion proposal was lodged with Noosa
Council in 2007 and ultimately decided by Sunshine Coast Council. The development was referred
to as Noosa Civic Stage 3 and involved a 41,050m2 expansion to the existing shopping centre,
comprising 35,850m2 of additional retail floor space and 5,200m2 of commercial office space. The
development’s location occupied most of SBC Precinct E1 and extended further to the east toward
Walter Hay Drive and occupied most of Precinct E6.
Sunshine Coast Council refused the application at its Ordinary Meeting of 4 June 2009. The decision
was appealed by the applicant (Planning & Environment Court appeal ref. 182/09) and a number of
parties elected to become co-respondents to defending the appeal. The case proceeded to trial but
the appellant subsequently discontinued the appeal in May 2011 partway through the trial. The
applicant and owner at the time subsequently sold the site to QIC early in 2012.
A further application for a major expansion of the shopping centre was lodged by QIC with Council
in January 2015. The application sought approval for a major expansion of the Noosa Civic shopping
centre involving 32,525m2 of additional floor area and 22,870m2 of gross leasable area, 66 new
commercial tenancies, comprising 2 supermarkets, a discount department store, specialty stores,
food outlets and restaurants. The expansion was proposed at the eastern end of the existing
shopping centre, where the existing food court is located. Some reconfiguration of that end of the
existing centre was also proposed. Notably the application included contributions to offset the loss
of koala habitat at the time.
Noosa Council refused the application at its Ordinary Meeting on 24 September 2015 citing 10
reasons. An appeal was lodged with the Planning and Environment Court on 23 October 2015 by
the applicant. The Planning and Environment Court upheld Council’s refusal on 16 December 2016
with the judgement concluding that that the combination of conflicts outweighed the grounds
advanced by the appellant, including:
(i)     the negative traffic implications;
(ii)    the likely negative outcomes for the intended “Civic” area;
(iii)   the bulk and scale of the proposed development insofar as it could result in more intensive
        development and that it does not enhance or form an extension of OS7/ Covenant J;
(iv)    the likely overestimation of the need for and the extent and variety of speciality shops;
(v)     the likely negative impacts on the Noosa Junction Centre; and
(vi)    the substantive conflict between long term proposed use and mix of uses intended for the SBC,
        at its centre or core.



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