2023-03-07 Planning & Environment Meeting Agenda

PLANNING & ENVIRONMENT COMMITTEE MEETING AGENDA                                    7 MARCH 2023


    preparation of the “Good Management of Short Stay Letting and Home Hosted
     Accommodation Guide”;
    preparation of a dedicated Council webpage for the local law with supporting information,
     forms, complaints hotline information, factsheets and guides;
    the establishment of an approvals register though PD Online;
    education and advocacy on short term accommodation matters where required;
    the establishment of a multi interest stakeholder group; and
    the undertaking of a 12 month review of the local law.
Council further resolved to waive application fees for the 2021/2022 financial year and refer the
review of funding options and fee structure to the 2022/23 budget process. The application fees
and annual renewal fees were reported and publicly notified as part of Council’s 2022/23 budget
papers.
The application fees were set at:
    $950 for a house
    $320 for a unit
    $240 for home hosted accommodation
    $240 for a house (4 times and maximum of 60 days)
The annual renewal fee was proposed at $150.
Following public consultation on the 2022/23 budget, at its meeting of 28 June 2022, Council
decided to proceed with the application fees which took effect from 1 July 2022. However, the
annual renewal fees were deferred until after the completion of the 12 month review to provide
more information on the costs associated with administering the local law.
2.   Local law implementation overview
The local law commenced on 1 February 2022 following considerable setup of new systems and
processes by staff, the establishment of a new local laws team to administer the local law, and the
setup of the 24/7 complaints hotline and 12 month trial of security services.
Implementation of the local law required a whole new regulatory framework to be established with
a new team of local laws officers, new systems and processes and Council’s first 24/7 call centre
hotline. It should be noted that the implementation of the local law and 24/7 complaints hotline was
an entirely new area of business for Council, and the first of its kind in Queensland. The local law
was a learning process and somewhat ground breaking for Queensland local government in the
absence of any state government direction around the regulation of short stay letting.
The local laws team sits with the Development Assessment area and comprises:
    1 permanent compliance officer;
    2 temporary 3 year local laws compliance officers;
    1 permanent administration officer; and
    1 temporary 3 year administration position.
With the high number of applications made during the fee waiver period, additional administration
and compliance officer resources were also allocated to the team to manage the workload.
The team’s primary role is to receive and assess applications for short stay letting and home hosted
accommodation and issue decision notices and undertake compliance under the local law.
The assessment includes determining firstly whether the use of the property for short stay letting
is lawful by way of a development approval, existing use rights or complies with Noosa Plan 2020
accepted development provisions (for home hosted accommodation or short stay letting for no
more than 4 times and a maximum of 60 days per year).
Assessment is also undertaken to ensure any conditions of planning approval are being met, such
as the number of approved bedrooms, and that the applicant has self-declared on the application
form that they meet relevant safety requirements such as pool safety, electrical fire safety and
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