Submission to Development Application MCU15-0122 - Objection · MCU15/0122

intended that medical uses required to support the Noosa Hospital be located on the land
occupied by the Centre.

Noosa Radiology is currently located in the Centre and occupies about 744m? of floor space
and has been a long term tenant at the site. In addition, there are about 8 doctors, a
pathology lab and chemist that operate from the site, which suggests that the Centre is
currently providing support to the Noosa Hospital, consistent with the intentions under the
planning scheme. It is noted that currently, the medical related use occupies about 35% of
the current floor space at the Centre, with Noosa Radiology occupying about 12% of the
total floor space, which is substantial.

It is concerning that the application material states that Noosa Radiology requires an
additional 300m? of floor space and that currently this floor space is not available in the
Centre. Further, it is stated that there is a need for the proposed development, purportedly
because this floor space is not available in the existing Centre. With respect, this is not
correct and currently there is availability for an additional 350m? of floor space, which could
be used by Noosa Radiology.

It should also be noted that Noosa Radiology has at no time made enquires about acquiring
additional floor space within the Centre. Further, there have been no other enquires made

within the last 5 years by any other medical practitioner or service provider to acquire floor
space in the Centre.

It should be noted that at the time the Centre was being developed in 2004-2006, the Noosa
Hospital sought to acquire a considerable amount of the floor space, and the Centre was
being built for this purpose. However, for whatever reason, the Noosa Hospital never took up
this option and has since made no enquires about acquiring floor space within the Centre.

The above suggests that there is currently no need for additional floor space to be made
available in the Noosaville Locality for additional medical services. This is consistent with the

advice provided by Foresight Partners (Attachment 2), that there is no need for the
proposed medical centre.

It is also important that had Noosa Radiology approached the management of the Centre
about acquiring more floor space, arrangements could have been made to provide the
required 1,000m? contiguous floor space for Noosa Radiology. Further, there is potential to
provide approximately, a further 720m? of floor space at the Centre subject to additional
parking and other requirements under the Noosa Plan 2006 being met.

More recently, the University of Central Queensland (UCQ) has confirmed that it does not
require additional floor space in the Centre. Further, should the Noosa Business Centre (NBC)
be developed further, it is highly likely that the UCQ would relocate to this site in the long
term, consistent with the intentions under the planning scheme. Should this occur, there will
be about 3,000m of floor space that would become available for medical uses in the future.
Importantly, allowing the proposed medical centre would take away some of the need to
further develop the NBC, which is not desirable.

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