2019-09-16 General Committee Agenda

GENERAL COMMITTEE MEETING AGENDA   16 SEPTEMBER 2019




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GENERAL COMMITTEE MEETING AGENDA                                                    16 SEPTEMBER 2019

                At the first mediation, which occurred in early 2017, PBCAI suggested that the Motel
                should be built with priority and Thomco agreed for it to be built as Stage 1.
                Subsequently, during the preparation of the evidence for the hearing of this matter,
                Thomco agreed that all of the Motel would be for visitor accommodation which
                removed another reason for the rejection of Thomco’s development application.
                Thomco then used the fact that all of the Motel units were available for visitor
                accommodation to submit that the dwellings, now reduced to 20, should be approved
                for permanent accommodation.
                Thomco only agreed on day 8 of the hearing to abandon its application for
                permanent accommodation in the dwellings, which resulted in this matter settling.
                Even after that settlement, Thomco again changed it plans before the settlement was
                made an Order by the Court on 21 June 2019.
                Thomco ever since the first application involving this land in 2007 has had a history
                of constantly changing its plans, even after mediated agreements have been made
                as Orders of the Court and of not complying with those agreements or Orders.
                You will be aware that the dedication of the western portion of this land for
                environmental purposes, agreed to in 2010 and made an Order of the Court and
                subsequently a condition of the IGA approval, was not implemented by Thomco until
                2018, and only after Council intervened.
                THE STAGING ISSUE:

                The Motel for short-term visitor accommodation was not opposed by PBCAI.
                The Council, PBCAI and the community wants to ensure that the Motel is actually
                built, despite its architectural and other limitations.
                The Court Order made by Consent, requires the Motel to be built as Stage 1 to be
                given priority, but the Order would allow the Motel and the dwellings to be built
                simultaneously. There is no requirement in the Order or the Conditions that the
                development has to be staged. That is a matter for Thomco. The requirement that
                the Motel is to be built as Stage 1 only arises if Thomco chooses to stage the
                development.
                It is stated in the documents submitted by Thomco to support its pre-request
                response that it considers there to be no difference between short-term visitor
                accommodation provided in the Motel building and that provided in the Visitor
                Accommodation Type 4 Dwellings. This is reinforced by the reference to the Tourism
                Accommodation Zone Code in the new Noosa Plan and the statement that “there are
                no requirements to deliver “Motel Style Accommodation’...”
                PBCAI does not agree and is concerned, based on this statement, that Thomco is
                wanting to resile from the June 2019 approval it obtained for this development which
                requires it to build a Motel for short-term visitor accommodation. This statement
                would suggest a possible future application, based on there being “no requirements
                to deliver “Motel Style Accommodation” seeking to build more dwellings on the Motel
                site.

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