MCU22/0201 Application For Material Change Of Use For Car Wash And Food & Drink Outlet At 34 Elm Street, Cooroy

Amelia Lorentson22:47

That Council note the report by the coordinating planning to the Planning & Environment Committee Meeting dated 6 August 2024 regarding MCU 22/0201 for a development purpose. Elm Street, Cooroy and A, approve the application. B, delegate to the Chief Executive Officer to issue a development permit for Material Change of Use for a car wash and food and drink outlet at 34 Elm Street, Cooroy and impose reasonable and relevant conditions. On the approval. C, note that the report is provided in accordance with section 63 of the Planning Act 2016 and D, find the following matters relevant to the assessment and sufficient reason to approve the application. One, there is a strong level of economic, community and planning need for the development in this location. Two, there is no car wash currently provided within Cooroy and Noosa hinterland and no other suitable land available for that purpose. Three, the proposed development will provide substantial community benefit and will not cause any adverse impacts on the humanity and character of the area. Four, the proposed development accords with community expectations given the significant number of submissions in support that have been received. Five, there will be significant environmental benefits for a car wash to be provided in the location in improved resulting water quality entering local waterways, including Lake Macdonald. Six, a car wash is for the commercial washing of vehicles, which is a complementary use to the existing service stations in this location, which will result of facilities and reduce traffic movements. Seven, conditions can be imposed to address any issues raised by submitters about the hours of operations of the development.

Good afternoon Councillors. We're dealing with this morning a application for a Material Change of Use MCU 22/021 for a car wash and food and drink premises over at 34 Elm Street, Cooroy. This application was considered at the planning committee meeting and has been referred up to general for further consideration. The applicant proposes a car wash on the site and a food and drink premises on the corner. The car wash comprises two auto bays, two manual bays, two super bays, as well as three vacuum bays and a dog wash area on the northern side of the site. Just as a comparison, the Noosaville car wash next to the Bunnings has four car wash bays and vacuum bays, whereas the other one down there, Good Shepherd, has four car wash bays and two wash bays and two auto bays. Two pre-lodgement meetings were held with the applicant, and whilst these pre-lodgement meetings indicated that there was some need for such a use as there wasn't a car wash in the Cooroy locality, any application, the applicant was advised that any application would need to clearly demonstrate a need and outline all grounds and all grounds for supporting this application as well as reviewing other sites products in the locality. During the process there was various information requests that were issued and further advices and it is noted that the applicant responded to all of those information requests and further advices and provided amended plans and further technical reports the in response to those information requests the design was altered several times to include further pitch roof and elements relating to the Cooroy character. The site is located in the Cooroy Local Plan area included in the district centre zone. A car wash is detailed in the assessment tables for the district centre zone as an impact inconsistent use. Inconsistent uses are defined under the Noosa Plan as a use that is strongly inappropriate in the relevant zones because it is incompatible with other uses generally expected in that zone. The Noosa Plan also has a list of defined activity groups and a car wash is included in the industry activities group. A station which has been indicated by the applicant to the north of the site is included in the business activities group and it is also an impact inconsistent use in this zone. So just as an aside on that in terms of industry activities and the groupings under the planning scheme we do have things such as a car wash, extractive industries, high impact industry, medium industry and warehouses. Whereas business activities include things like, I'll miss the first, the adult store, but it thinks like bulk landscape supplies, food and drink, garden centre, markets, office shops, etc. The applicant has identified that this type of use is generally consistent in other schemes. Just for comparison, I've had a quick look. Brisbane City Council it's except accepted development. A car wash is accepted development in their business zone but it's to be located in association with an existing service station and then there are caveats around an enclosed car parking associated with the shopping centre. Morton it's located a car wash is assessable development code-assessable if it's in a specialised or more a centre precinct area and when you have a quick look at that precinct about bulky goods and the car wash is to be located internally to that development. Gympie it's impact assessable Sunshine Coast centre and Sunshine Coast Council is code and Fraser Coast its impact as well. The application as a result of being impact assessable was publicly notified and there were over 520 submissions received 498 were received in support and over 19 against. Unfortunately it's been hard to actually identify where all of those submissions were because a lot of people did include just an email address. The district centre zone is intended to cater for commercial development with the Noosa Plan indicating that development is to maintain a traditional town centre design with development addressing the street and providing active street fronts. Proposed car wash is not considered the intent of this zone and locality. The car wash is considered to reinforce the partially established industrial character of Elm Street which is created by the existing this is the existing historic service station. The zone seeks active street funds with car parking not to dominate the frontage. The proposed car wash provides limited street buildings and street frontages with cars being highly visible. The car wash also results in lots of valuable district centre lines zoned land which is intended for commercial retail uses. As previous outlined, at the time of writing this report, which was several weeks ago, the original report, our traffic consultant had indicated that things were okay with it. Upon further investigation, the traffic consultant has come back and indicated to us that he has some concerns. He believes the applicant hasn't satisfactorily demonstrated that access to the site is acceptable in terms of queuing and whether Diamond Lane exit could accommodate all the traffic. It is noted that the application was referred to the State, SARA, because of its proximity and that they had no objections and just included standing conditions relating to impacts, making sure there's no impacts on their infrastructure. When we're looking at this application we also considered need and there are three key aspects when we're considering need. There's the economic, community and planning need. The strategic and environment department have advised that there is limited centre-zoned land in Cooroy compared to that in the industrial land and that we should be retaining this land for okay, commercial uses. I'm sure they'll come up later. There is sufficient, there is other land available in Cooroy capable for development in Jarrah Street and also out at Holts Road. The applicant has raised that there's significant employment benefits from this development, noting we've got four to six attendants over seven days, the food and drink has two people, and it can generate up to 20 people in a part-time or full-time basis. It is agreed that this site will have some employment opportunities. However, we still believe this would be less than a commercial activity on the site. Staff also agree that there are benefits associated with the car wash in terms of water conservation, reducing waste water running into the environment. However, I would note that this could also achieved if the site was located in an industrial zone. In relation to need, it is agreed that Cooroy and the surrounding area do not have a car wash and that many residents. Are supportive, however on balance the loss of the district zone land, the limited employment opportunities and the visual streetscape impacts are considered to outweigh these matters and the application is not supported by staff.

Brian Stockwell12:26

Thank you, and as with all the submissions made to the planning scheme amendments, your views concerns are currently being considered and weighed up on by staff, and we will receive a report in the future looking at suggested amendments to what was advertised. We now move on to item five, which is items referred from committees, and the first one is Material Change of Use 22.0201 for application for a car wash, food and drink outlet at 34 Elm Street, Cooroy, and we welcome. Director Richards, manager Patrick, and reporting officer Nadine. Oh, okay, we have a conflict.