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

PLANNING & ORGANISATION COMMITTEE MEETING AGENDA                                25 MARCH 2014


The applicant acknowledges the need for such grounds and originally described 34 in its
application. Council staff considered many of those grounds to be insufficient or extraneous and
requested the applicant to provide its summary, overarching grounds. The applicant’s Further
Information Response indicated it felt its original 34 grounds were consistent with the SPA
requirements but did provide a consolidated list of 10 primary grounds, discussed below.

Assessment of Applicant’s Grounds for Approval
BDOA - Expanded Noosa National Park Benefits (Grounds 1 - 3)

1. In September 2007, the former Noosa Shire boundary (the Noosa District) was designated as
   a biosphere region by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation’s
   (UNESCO) Man and the Biosphere (MAB) Program. The Noosa Biosphere Reserve consists
   of 150,000 Ha of land and sea and since 2007 the primary focus has been to ensure the area
   is valued, looked after and conserved. The proposed Noosa on Weyba development will
   comply with the initiatives associated with the Noosa Biosphere through transferring 139.5 Ha
   of the site to the State for the purposes of inclusion into the Noosa National Park, with an
   estimated value of $18,600,000, at no cost to the public.

Assessment – Agree in Part

It is agreed that the dedication of the BDOA “Send Site” land to National Park required by the
State under the executed Infrastructure Agreement poses a community benefit. This is
considered to be the primary benefit in favour of the proposal; however, its importance is
overstated. The applicant grossly overestimates the value of the land to be dedicated, based on
a simple, equivalent developable residential zoned land value extrapolation. The land is more
likely valued at a maximum of $4M - $7M, which is far less than the applicant’s figure of $18.6M.

Notably, Council collects ratepayer funds for environmental land purchases through its
environmental levy. Such a purchase of the send site, at a fair market rate, could be seen as a
significantly better environmental outcome than the BDOA arrangement proposed, linked as it is
to intensive urban development on neighbouring lands that will have a net impact on the
biodiversity values of the area.

2. The transfer of 139.5 Ha of the Noosa on Weyba site to the State for the purposes of
   inclusion into the Noosa National Park will link together two isolated sections of Noosa
   National Park causing a large contiguous section of National Park. The dedication of the
   BDOA ‘Send’ land will provide the opportunity to unlock the major component of Lake Weyba
   and provide public access to a greater range of National Park and the 1.6kms of Lake Weyba
   shoreline, with these areas currently not generally accessible to the general public due to
   restrictions caused by private ownership of the surrounding land.

Assessment – Agree in Part

It is agreed that the National Park dedication of the BDOA “Send Site” National Park is desirable
insofar as it enhances linkages of conservation land from the Noosa National Park to the North,
to the nature refuges to the south and further National Park lands further to the south. However,
the proposed development compromises the function of this environmental corridor by placing a
significant urban development, and associated road infrastructure, within the corridor, the net
result clearly being to the detriment of the corridor.




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