2019-10-28 Special Meeting Agenda

SPECIAL MEETING AGENDA                                                          28 OCTOBER 2019


The site has frontages to Eenie Creek Road (approximately 730m) and Walter Hay Drive
(approximately 1,030m), which both form part of the major road network identified by The Noosa
Plan. Neither of the roads are State controlled. Vehicular access to the site is currently provided
from Eenie Creek Road, Walter Hay Drive and Hofmann Drive, with both intersections functioning
as roundabouts. An additional roundabout intersection has been constructed on Walter Hay Drive
at the southern end of the site in anticipation of future development. Pedestrian and cyclist
access to the site is primarily provided via a path from the Eenie Creek Road frontage, with
pedestrian/cycle tunnels constructed under both Eenie Creek Road and Walter Hay Drive. The
site is within a few kilometres of secondary activity centres at Tewantin, Noosaville and Noosa
Junction. The Noosaville industrial estate is located to the immediate west of the site, with a large
retirement village located to the north, with the North Weyba section of the Noosa National Park
and Lake Weyba to the east. At a regional scale, the site is located approximately 27km north of
Maroochydore, the primary activity centre.
The land is generally flat and gently sloping toward Eenie Creek to the south of the site. The site
is part of a system of coastal lowlands that flow to Lake Weyba and the Noosa River. A drainage
corridor is also situated on the subject site, running generally in a north east to south west
direction to Eenie Creek south of the site. This corridor is identified as precinct OS7 – open
space (environmental drainage) by the precinct plan for the SBC and has been created as
Covenant J, with Noosa Council as covenantee.
The area of the subject site, which this application proposes to develop, is vacant land and is
currently vegetated. The vegetation is intact regrowth vegetation. The vegetation was
predominately cleared in 1979, with the development footprint mapped as “regrowth” vegetation
for the purposes of the Vegetation Management Act 1999. On-ground surveys have identified
remnant patches too small for inclusion in regional ecosystem mapping. The regional ecosystem
the vegetation is associated with is predominantly Regional Ecosystem 12.9-10.1, described as
Tall open forest. Canopy species include Eucalyptus resinifera, E. grandis, E. robusta, Corymbia
intermedia +/- E. microcorys, Melaleuca quinquenervia, Syncarpia glomulifera subsp. glomulifera
and Lophostemon confertus. The dominant canopy tree is Syncarpia glomulifera subsp.
glomulifera (Turpentine), with other species such as Eucalyptus resinifera, E. grandis and
Corymbia intermedia occurring less frequently. The sub-canopy contains representations of the
upper canopy, as well as Alphitonia excelsa, Melaleuca salignus and Cryptocarya glaucescens.
Under the Vegetation Management Act, there are no regional ecosystems listed as ‘Endangered’
known to occur at the SBC site. There are also no recorded flora species found on the site that
are listed as vulnerable or endangered under the Nature Conservation Act 1992 or the
Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999. Further, no nationally significant
fauna species have been recorded recently within the site by the applicant; however national
significant fauna species have been recorded in the vicinity of the site, with 1 of these within the
immediate locality being the Koala.
This area between the SBC and Eenie Creek has been retained as natural vegetation providing
habitat for these species and buffering Eenie Creek from development. This conservation
allocation was done as part of Stage 1 development of SBC and is identified as Lot 3 SP182845
and has a total area of 11.15 hectares.
Four parts of the site are subject to a statutory covenant, which seek to preserve existing native
vegetation on the land. The covenanted areas generally correspond with open space precincts
OS3, OS5 and OS7 as identified on the precinct plan for the SBC (refer figure 9, pg. 16), OS3
being for visual amenity. Notably the terms of the covenant provide that existing vegetation is
preserved, however the covenant does allow that fixtures, buildings, structures or paths may be
constructed within the covenanted areas where shown on plans approved by Council. In
summary, any proposed intrusion by development into covenanted areas which seek to be
protect visual amenity and vegetation may be only occur in accordance with Council approval.




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