2015-01-15 Ordinary Meeting Minutes

ORDINARY MEETING MINUTES                                                     15 JANUARY 2015


    F.   As Noosa Council values community engagement in its planning and development
         decisions, we have concerns regarding changes that may serve to inhibit, obstruct or
         minimise resident input. Reductions in public notification periods and removal of
         existing requirements for notices to be placed in local newspapers are thus not
         supported and there should be a minimum notification period for applications of 20
         business days. We also have concerns about the proposal that an applicant may
         choose to publicly notify a development application as early as 5 days after the
         development application is properly made. We believe submitters are better served
         under the current arrangement where public notification is able to occur following the
         information request period;
    G.   Noosa Council has long enjoyed a locally popular planning scheme that is in
         part premised on studies and deliberations concerning the ideal carrying capacity for
         our shire. We have concerns that the Queensland Planning Reform Process may
         herald arbitrary enlargements of the Urban Footprints within the Noosa Shire area;
    H.   Noosa Council does not support proposed changes relating to Community
         Infrastructure designation that will remove local government powers to designate
         infrastructure. Nor do we support the proposal for the State Planning Minister to be
         the sole designating Minister for Infrastructure Designation in Queensland and to thus
         choose what developments can proceed, be they public or private infrastructure, and
         have them exempt from planning scheme requirements and from infrastructure
         charges; and
    I.   The maximum infrastructure charges prescribed by legislation remain unchanged
         since being introduced in 2011. Infrastructure charges have dropped in real terms
         due to indexation not being applied. This prohibits councils from making charges that
         reflect the actual current costs of building infrastructure. Thus the proportional costs
         of public infrastructure related to new development are being met by the community.
         Meanwhile the State Government adds 3.5% annual indexation to its own fees and
         charges. Noosa Council thus requests that annual automatic indexation of the current
         maximum capped charges be introduced to reflect increasing costs of providing
         infrastructure.
                                                                                        Carried.




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