2022-09-06 Planning & Environment Meeting Agenda

PLANNING & ENVIRONMENT COMMITTEE MEETING AGENDA                                 6 SEPTEMBER 2022


Council’s Environment Levy Policy 2020 identifies the acquisition of environmentally significant
land as part of a wider strategy for landscape protection and the preservation of biodiversity in
Noosa Shire.
The Department of Transport and Main Roads (TMR) is one of several State agencies whose
construction works can have significant impacts on biodiversity values (including within Noosa
Shire). TMR are currently preparing for replacement of the Six Mile Creek bridge on the Pomona
Kin Kin Road with work expected to commence in late 2022. Attachment 1 describes the project
and the impacts on habitat and species listed under Commonwealth and State legislation. In
summary it was identified that the project will impact 0.17 hectare of a threatened ecological
community under the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act (Lowland
subtropical rainforest) and 3.17 hectares of mapped Koala habitat under State legislation. The
offset requirements for these impacts are stated in section 3.2.3.3 of the report and are:
     Establishment and maintenance of 0.9 hectare of lowland subtropical rainforest
      (Commonwealth offset assessment).
     Establishment and maintenance of 12.7 hectares of Koala habitat (Queensland financial
      settlement offset calculator).
Under the Queensland Environmental Offset Policy, an offset package may include land-based
offsets, actions in a direct benefit management plan, or a financial settlement offset (where the
proponent pays the Qld Govt a specified figure for an offset to be delivered at a future date).
Up to now land based offset receiving sites from environmental impacts from TMR (and other
agencies) activities within Noosa Shire have largely been delivered in other local government
areas. For example, Sunshine Coast Regional Council has a well-resourced environmental offsets
program in place with agreements in place with agencies such as TMR and Energex.
Noosa Council staff are now working with TMR to formalise an agreement to deliver land-based
offsets within the Noosa Shire, with the Six Mile Creek bridge offset being a potential test case.
The agreement will outline roles and responsibilities of each party, identify the offset receiving site
and relevant requirements and financial arrangements.
Within Council’s conservation estate, there is one property that has potential to receive offsets from
numerous projects moving forward. This is 1280 McKinnon Drive (Cooloothin Nature Refuge)
purchased under Council’s Environment levy land acquisition program in 2015. The 106 hectare
property contains 61 hectares of regrowth vegetation that is not mapped as Koala habitat and as
such is available to deliver Koala offsets (Map 1). Before it was cleared the land contained an
endangered Regional Ecosystem (RE 12.5.2) so the land could also be used as a receiving site to
replace that specific Regional Ecosystem under State Policy. There are other Council managed
bushland reserves that may also be suitable offset receiving sites, though with less area of land
suitable (most Council reserves contain mapped remnant vegetation).




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