2014-03-25 Planning & Organisation Committee Agenda Pages 81-167

PLANNING & ORGANISATION COMMITTEE MEETING AGENDA                                    25 MARCH 2014


Sewerage Infrastructure

Sewerage capacity is a primary infrastructure consideration for this development, with the site
falling outside areas planned to receive urban infrastructure. The application was referred to
Unitywater for review of the water and sewerage infrastructure requirements. Unitywater
identified the following critical issues:
 The subject lots are located outside of the urban footprint for the South East Queensland
     Regional Plan and are consequently outside of Unitywater’s headwork area.
 Due to this application location, Unitywater have not allowed/envisaged any demand for this
     site within any existing network planning.
 From the Water and Sewerage Analysis prepared by Cardno in September 2013, there are
     numerous deficiencies, firstly within the report and secondly within Unitywater’s network that
     is expected to provide the required level of service for this development.
 Water supply to this development appears to be feasible with the developer undertaking
     appropriate water main augmentations within the network at their full cost.
 Sewerage from the site through the network can be provided with various augmentations to
     be undertaken at the developer’s cost.
 The existing sewage treatment plant, owned by Unitywater and operated by ‘Degremont’
     currently has limited ‘spare’ capacity to cater for further growth.
 If some ‘spare’ sewage treatment capacity were to be allocated to this development it should
     be recognised that it may limit future options to increase demand from within the existing
     urban boundary.

Unitywater indicates it is prepared to apply conditions for approval of the development, with all
associated network and infrastructure costs to be covered by the developer and subject to an
infrastructure agreement. Such costs would not be eligible for trunk infrastructure offsets as the
site is outside the Priority Development Area under the Councils’ Adopted Infrastructure Charges
resolutions.

While willing to support approval of the application, Unitywater have stressed that, ultimately, it is
a matter for Council to decide if spare capacity should be allocated to this unplanned
development. Discussions indicate the following key considerations:
 Approval of the development would bring the Noosa Heads Sewage Treatment Plant closer
   to the need for a major upgrade (costing possibly in the order of $30M). Such upgrade costs
   could not reasonably be applied to this development.
 The future upgrade cost is likely to be prohibitive for future additional (i.e. currently
   unplanned) development.
 Given the above, approval of the development will effectively be at the “opportunity cost” of
   other future development Council might prefer (such as additional development within
   existing urban areas).

The opportunity cost of approving the development is a significant concern and an undesirable
outcome of the proposal.




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