BoralSubmission(MCU19_0054)

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Introduction
Boral, is the country's largest construction materials and building products supplier. Boral’s Noosa
Concrete Plant is located at 1 Production Street, Noosa (Lot 254 MCH4539). The site
manufactures concrete to various specifications, supplying the construction industry of Noosa.

Pre-mixed concrete has a limited shelf life and must be produced as close to the end-user /
location as possible (serviceable radius is 10 to 15 kilometres). Concrete setting time, puts a
constraint on its usability. Specifications for particular concrete strengths, can also be impacted by
delivery time. Benefits in having a concrete plant close to the end-user are:
           reduced truck movements: improves safety, reduces damage to roads and preserves
             public amenity.
           lower costs: cartage contractors are paid per kilometre for every cubic metre.
           continuity of supply: a shorter journey reduces traffic risk, which is critical to ensure
             the integrity of the concrete.

Noosa Council area has a limited supply of industrial land. Industry provides employment and
essential local services. Noosa’s existing industrial land should be protected from encroachment of
incompatible uses. New uses proposed to occur adjacent to existing industrial uses must be
required to demonstrate how they can occur without impacting on the use rights of existing
industry.

Current situation
At present, the concrete plant is located around 400 metres from the nearest residential receptor
to the west of the site, and slightly further to receptors in the north east. The site is located in the
Industry Zone of the Noosa Plan. Desired environmental outcomes of the planning scheme for
industrial business uses state that … Industrial uses and extractive and mining uses contribute to
the local economy and employment sector by— protecting industrial areas, valuable extractive and
mineral resources and associated heavy vehicle haul routes, particularly from the encroachment of
incompatible development, for the ongoing benefit of the community.

The site pre-dates planning schemes. In November 1996, Council issued Environmental Authority
(EA) 0920000095 over the site. On 23 November, 1982 Council granted consent for “cement
product works” over the site (Decision Notice: TPC 1586).

Emissions from the concrete plant are well controlled by on-site mitigation, shielding provided by
the intervening commercial buildings, and adequate buffers to nearest residential receptor. Under
the approvals there are no limits on the operational hours of the plant. Notwithstanding,
operational hours are generally 6 am to 6 pm to suit market demand.

Proposed development
The proposed development comprises of 25 tenancies being a mixture of large format retail,
business / retail incubator, co-working office facilities and food and beverage outlets. Building 1
(Tenancies T03 to T13) back directly onto the existing industrial development. Tenancy T03 is
identified as a “Kids Play Center / Indoor Recreation”.

The design of Building 1 includes open corridors between buildings – these appear to look directly
into the existing industrial development. The design provides significant pedestrian walkways and




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awning structures at the main building frontages and along the entries to tenancies. The treatment
of the site boundary with the industrial estate is not discussed in the planning report.

The proposal states that the large format retail, business and office use, food and beverage [will
act] as transitional land uses between the adjacent industry and the core of the Shire Business
Centre Zone. In reality, the proposal brings sensitive receptors to within close proximity of the
existing industrial development. Despite the encroachment, the application is not supported by air
or noise impact assessment. As a result, the application has not considered the impact of
introducing new sensitive premises on the ability of Boral’s concrete plant to comply with its
current obligations to control air and noise emissions (or the compliance position of any of the
existing industrial development).

Conflict with approval conditions
Regarding the threat to Boral’s compliance position, relevant conditions of EA 0920000095 are
provided in Table 1 below.


                    Table 1: Relevant conditions of Environmental Authority




While the Noosa Plan and the Department of Environment and Science do not provide
recommended separation distance for concrete plants from sensitive uses, Brisbane City Council,
Western Australia and the Victorian Environmental Protection Agencies recommended separation
distances range between 100m and 500m. The proposed development is in much closer proximity
than recommended separation distances from concrete plants. As a result, it is possible the
proposed development will be incompatible.

Specifically, with regard to Boral’s conditions of approval, for Noise, while the wording of the EPP
Noise and the Environmental Protection (Interim) Regulations differ slightly, the commonly
accepted approach to compliance is the “background plus criteria” whereby acceptable levels of
noise are set relative to the prevailing background noise for the particular time of day the plant is
operating. There are two key issues:

       more stringent noise limits apply early in the morning and at night, and




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       limits are external noise limits, that is they will apply to the facade of any nearby premises.

Consequently, there is potential for noise from the concrete plant to cause external noise limits to
be exceeded at the proposed development particularly during the early morning and evening.

For Air, due to the proximity of the proposed development, there is potential for air emission from
the concrete plant to cause ambient air quality objectives and guidelines to be exceeded at the
proposed development which may result in environmental nuisance.

Summary
The proposed development will bring sensitive receptors within close proximity of the existing, and
long established, industrial estate. Despite this, the application is not supported by air or noise
impact assessment. Due to this lack of information, the development has not adequately
considered the potential impacts of the neighbouring industrial estate and conversely it has not
considered its effect on the compliance position of neighbouring industrial uses. The cost of
compliance in these circumstances (capital, operating capacity and reputation), invariably falls to
industry.

Prior to approving this proposal, we strongly urge Council to seek further information from the
developer to ensure existing, and long established, industrial uses such as Boral’s Noosa concrete
plant are adequately considered and allowed to continue to operate without additional constraints.

If conditioning an approval, we request that:
      direct line of sight view corridors are removed from the design and boundary fence
         treatments are conditioned to be extensive (i.e. to minimum height of 6 metres)
      air and noise reverse amenity conditions are embedded within the approval such that
         these matters must be considered in the final building design. Conditions are best
         expressed as absolute limits at the sensitive receptor. The absolute limits should be higher
         than those prescribed under legislation and guidelines for air and noise such that the
         developer is aware of the industrial estate, acknowledges a reduced level of amenity and
         designs according
      covenants are required to be placed on Title acknowledging the order of occupancy and
         limiting the ability of tenants to make complaints on nuisance grounds

If you require further information please contact me.

Yours sincerely,




Ian Baldwin
Planning and Development Manager




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