MCU22/0094 Development Application For A Childcare Centre At 28 Eenie Creek Road, Noosaville

Amelia Lorentson69:30

I'd like to move an alternate motion that Council note the report by the coordinator planning to the Planning & Environment Committee dated 11th of June 2024 regarding application number MCU220094 MCU 22.0094 for Material Change of Use for a childcare centre situated at 28 Eenie Creek Road, Noosaville and request staff to bring forward a revised report to the Planning & Environment Committee Meeting of 9th of July 2024 detailing conditions for approval. We have a seconder for that motion. Councillor Phillips. Okay. I'm moving this alternate motion to approve a childcare application based on recognition of economic, community and social benefits associated with the proposed development and I'm going to list my reasons. Childcare centre is vital to our community. It offers essential services and employment opportunities that our residents and workforce desperately need. Establishing the centre will create jobs, support the influx of professionals, particularly with three new medical centres being built. To me by child childcare centres also play a crucial role in supporting women by enabling them to participate in the workforce. Access to reliable and affordable childcare allows women to go back to work, continue their careers and continue their education. This maximises the talent and potential within the workforce driving economic growth and innovation. Refusing this application because it does not provide the required 10 metre landscape buffer zone, a provision that was settled back in 2020. A decision that I asked this question at the Planning & Environment Committee Meeting, a decision that's not final and not binding, is not in my opinion reason. Reducing this buffer zone to four metres will not compromise the Noosa character, nor will it detract from the business centre's visual appeal. The other grounds for refusal, in my opinion, are equally unconvincing. This proposal is not about creating something our community does not want. It's actually the opposite. About addressing the pressing needs of our community. The economic and social benefits of this childcare centre far outweigh the constraints of our current Planning Act. We face a shortage of workers in the hospitality and retail sectors. Providing accessible childcare will attract and retain staff in these industries, directly contributing to the growth of the Noosa economy and improving our gross regional product. The proposal is planned to accommodate 96 children with the area of open space. That have to be regulated to ensure a safe and conducive environment. This capacity is essential as 96 is the minimum number of children required to make the centre economically feasible. We heard this again at the Planning & Environment Committee. Necessary changes have been made to address this requirement ensuring the project's viability and sustainability. The planning scheme doesn't consider economic viability of a business but Councillors should. We consider whether a business is economically viable because the long-term sustainability and prosperity of our community depend on the success of its local businesses. Viable business economically businesses contribute to the local economy. They provide employment opportunities, they attract further investment and they create a resilient local economy that can better withstand economic fluctuations. Last week we met with our business leaders in our Business Round Table and we spoke of diversification. We spoke of our Small Business Friendly Charter and growing our GRP. The development proposal aligns with our commitment to supporting small business, our commitment to diversifying our economy, and our commitment to growing our GRP. And yet more reasons to support this application. Council's refusing an essential service for our community based, in my opinion, on minor planning provisions does not outweigh these compelling reasons to approve it. Ask that we walk the talk and demonstrate our commitment to our community and again approve this essential service in front of us.

Brian Stockwell94:28

Else? Well I'll speak to it. Councils it is a very unusual situation and while we just had the argument about why not to apply the coding principle to the short-term, this is different. Councils considered this site put out to the public interview that it's suitable for a childcare centre. So we have at the moment a Council position that says the use is suited. So it's not that we need to debate a care centre. Need to debate the quality of development that has been set out for this site for many years the fact that the Noosa Business Centre can't be seen from Hofmann Drive I mean Walter Hay Drive and from Eenie Creek Road a is a result of exactly the same condition it's about establishing standards to achieve an outcome that as was said by staff where the experience when you're driving through here is one of the natural environment not the one of the built form and that's the key that's ground for refusal and that's the key thing we've got to consider this wasn't just a condition on a reconfiguration of the lot is a proposed condition the draft scheme that this Council has out in front of the public at this very moment. To vote against what is currently out for public consultation is putting up the white flag before you've raged at full height. So for me I well, I'll close. Anyone else want to speak?

Yes, thank you. Thank you very much for having me along today. Apologies, I did plan to be here last week but circumstances led to that not appearing. So, Stockwell has a long history with the Noosa of Disney. Business centre, working with Council to develop master plan 2 back in the early 2000s approval for Noosa Civic, including that business precinct and showroom in 2003. And really that was all about the first stage for the business centre to deliver on the long health aspiration. Held aspiration or counselling community which was to broaden the economic base of Noosa. At that time, back in 2003 when we did the first stage, we dedicated over 10 hectares of land as Council-owned open space and provided extensive covenants along what is Eenie Creek Road, which existed back then, and the now Walter Hay Drive, which was delivered as part of Main Roads and Stockwell and Council funding back in that first stage opening in 2006. All of that was captured in an infrastructure agreement which was executed in 2003 so today I just wanted to talk to you about the Childcare centre that we've proposed on lot 4 which has a staff recommendation for refusal and I understand having read the report and the discussions with the Council officers obviously we're disappointed that where we are but we are where we are and we have worked actually very hard to ensure that the proposal delivers on the outcomes sought by the Noosa Council being Noosa style, architecture of Noosa style in a park-like setting the proposal is for 96 class place childcare and we have an operator unfortunately Damien Horne from sanctuary childcare couldn't be here with us the childcare intended is to provide places much-needed places for the Noosa community but specifically the nexus is with the business centre so to be able to provide child care for people working and living in that broader Noosa Business Centre providing them a child care in the village mixed use and I know that was a topic discussed previously in the county environment meeting. For me the child care proposal that we've proposed for lot four delivers it really as a Noosa style built form standalone within a bushland setting and a parkway setting along Hofmann Drive. To deliver something in the village mixed precinct to my mind would be at the upper level and so you're talking about a very different facility that's not to say it can't be done but it's certainly something that would be delivered in a city environment as opposed to a Noosa environment. We notified the proposal and we didn't receive any submissions against it or indeed for there was thank you. One that came outside the public notification period so our proposal seeks to deliver as I mentioned that childcare in accordance with that park-like setting so what we've done is we have the Noosa Plan requires a four metre minimum built form setback from Hofmann Drive. That's a new planning scheme. We've provided a 10 metre built form setback and we've landscaped heavily the first four metres of that in the proposal and you can see that in the application and in the renders that were provided as part of the application. The Hofmann Drive landscape garden beds that were required as part of the subdivision approval, they're what's on the ground now. They are predominantly small shrubs with a few larger, you know, ground cover with some selected saplings and that's compliance with the conditions of the subdivision approval. The landscaping proposed as part of the childcare is very different and really we've, as I said, we've worked very hard to deliver Noosa park-like the setting whilst being able to maintain land for employment generating uses, which is what the business centre is about. Having been a part of the subdivision approval, the reason that the 10 metres was provided with land spec garden beds along Hofmann Drive is because that land in there required bulk earthworks to deliver the required topography of the road and the stormwater drainage on the site. And so understandably and supported by us, we wanted an outcome that didn't leave the site exposed until those lots were developed. Mentioned, the childcare proposal, we've got a 10 metre setback to the built form versus the four metres required under the plan, and we've got a four metre deep planted garden bed along the majority of the site. We do have a detention basin at the front and we've included or incorporated into that and really made it a feature in the landscape with a seat to provide against. You know, accidental encroachment and then a pedestrian board walk over to connect from the pathway at the eastern spine of the open space covenant across to the child care. We've redesigned the proposal. It was mentioned at the planning environment meeting. We've got a subdivision, an ROL, a reconfiguration of lot to realign that proposed boundary by two metres. We already did two metres back before we lodged the application, so we did that, well actually, after we lodged the application, but we did that before the plans were sealed for the subdivision because we knew we needed a bit more space. The other thing that I referenced is the infrastructure agreement back in 2003 and what that required was essentially for Stockwell to deliver the upfront with the first stage of development, the road and open space infrastructure for the ultimate development. There's a clause 10 in that infrastructure agreement that provides immunity for future stages in respect of those elements and that was really and the clause actually captures that the intent was to provide both Council and the landowner that certainty about what the outcome would be given so much of it was done upfront. Clause 10 is the clause under the infrastructure agreement it says the Noosa Business Centre shall be developed in accordance with master plan 2 in stages consistent with the needs of the community. Clause 10.1 talks about what that stage 1 comprises and the future stages. The development application relates to stage 1 of the Noosa Business Centre being a retail centre with 18,300 square metres of total use area, showroom homemaker of 7,000 total use area and commercial business component of not more than 5,000 total use area. Future stages of the business, the Noosa Business Centre on the land as contemplated by master plan 2. And future stages of the Noosa Business Centre on land other than the land as contemplated by master plan 2. And that was just referencing the fact that they were two different landowners at that point in time that owned the parcels that comprised the business centre. Clause 10.2 says in temporary stage 1 and future stages, this agreement is intended to give the applicant certainty as to the contributions and/or infrastructure charges that will be payable by it or its successor. Entitled in respect of stage 1 and future stages of the Noosa Business Centre on the land and also to give the Council the correlative certainty as to the contribution to the community that will be made by the applicant. It goes on in 10.3 to talk about the extent of immunity of future stages to the Noosa Business Centre on the land from future infrastructure and conditions and charges that and basically provides for in fact I'm going to read it out I've got time. Subject to clause 10.3b provided that the intensity of development of a future stage does not exceed master plan 2 and subject to the provisions of the clause is 6.2.3 which is about road demand and external road network and 10.4 which is about water and sewer. The Council agrees that having regard to the contributions in physical infrastructure provided for in this agreement and the conditions of approval in respect of roads, cycleways, parks, open space, nature public recreational facilities, land, and cycle pedestrian parkways, bushland preservation, urban drainage, water quality or waterway management, the applicant and its successors entitled shall not be required in respect of future stages of the Noosa Business Centre. On the land to undertake work, pay contributions way of conditions imposed on any application on account of infrastructure charges levied in accordance with the act for works external to the land relating to all of those things. If it was council's intent a to provide a metre buffer to Hofmann Drive, that would have been captured in the infrastructure agreement. The intent was to provide a 10-metre buffer to Eenie Creek Road and Walter Hay Drive. The intent was to provide development within a park-like setting. Believe and remain committed to the fact that our proposal does that. We've made accommodations. We've worked with the Council officers to do that. Yes, we acknowledge the bio-retention. We've turned that into a feature. We've redesigned the centre. We've put we've in a reconfiguration of lot. And I ask you, what is the 10 metres going to give the Noosa community? That four metres of a landscape, lush landscape setback and 10 metres of built form setback doesn't achieve. Thank you.