2021-01-18 General Committee Meeting Agenda

GENERAL COMMITTEE MEETING AGENDA                                                   18 JANUARY 2021


EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Not applicable.

RECOMMENDATION
That Council note the report by the Principal Environment Officer to the General Committee
Meeting dated 18 January 2021 and:
A.     Authorise the CEO to enter into a contract of sale with the owner of the two lots detailed in
       the report for a price not exceeding the amount set out in the valuation report with the funding
       for that purchase to be funded from the Environment Levy; and
B.     Remove the confidentiality in relation to this report upon the signing of a contract to purchase.

REPORT
The Noosa Environment Strategy 2019 has a target of ‘by 2030, half of all land in Noosa Shire is
managed for its environmental values’. The purchase of environmentally-significant land through
the Environment Levy is one mechanism that helps to achieve this target.
The Environment Levy Working Group (ELWG) developed a Conservation Land Policy Guideline
to guide the acquisition of environmentally-significant land and this was adopted by Council in
September 2018.
Under the Environment Levy Policy, one of the activities of the ELWG is:
•    Making assessments of properties for potential purchase based on the Conservation Land
     Guideline. Properties identified as high priority will be presented to Council for a decision on
     purchase and options available for purchase.
The owner of Lot 1 RP28724 and Lot 2 RP28724 (325 & 375 Lake Flat Road, Boreen Point)
approached environment officers for the potential purchase of this land. The ELWG considered
that the land met the Conservation Land Policy Guideline criteria and was worthy of further
investigation, so a valuation was commissioned (Attachment 1). The ELWG met on 15 January
2020 and recommended its acquisition be considered by Council. A report was provided to the
Ordinary Meeting of 20 February 2020 and Council approved the commencement of negotiations
to purchase this land.
Due to COVID-19 and potential budgetary constraints, negotiations to purchase this land were put
on hold. With more confidence around Council’s cash position the CEO authorised negotiations to
recommence. Recently staff met with the owner who advised he would be agreeable to selling the
land for $900,000 which is slightly under the valuation price of $925,000.

1.     Conservation Land Policy Guideline
The Conservation Land Policy Guideline places a priority on the acquisition of large land parcels
adjacent to the Cooloola-Noosa Core Protected Area (CPA). This CPA consists mostly of the Great
Sandy-Cooloola National Park but also private Nature Refuge and Council Bushland Reserve. The
Cooloola-Noosa Core Protected Area is shown in green in Map 1. Map 1 also shows the Tewantin-
Pomona CPA to the south which is largely the Yurol-Ringtail State Forest and Tewantin National
Park.




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