Further Consultation on Noosaville Foreshore Infrastructure Management Plan and Noosa River Catchment Management Plan

Frank Wilkie131:45

Thanks Mr Vella for the question. In response to the development of the Noosa Transport Strategy from 2017 to 2027, it involves several stages of community consultation and public input through 2017. Information about the strategy and consultation process was made available. Of channels, including public. Meetings, Council websites, newsletters and local media. Over 1,200 submissions were made by the public through surveys, submissions and personal events and the Australia reflected this input. Information on the consultation process please visit the Noosa Transport Strategy 2017/27/2027 page on Your Say Noosa Council is committed to review the Transport Strategy and prepare a new Movement and Connectivity Strategy which will include further community consultation. You thank you the next item is a confidential item and so we it's a not for public release planning and environmental appeal number three one five six 2023 application for hospital and associated facilities in Portishead and Goodchap Street, Noosaville. So we're going to be moving that we close the gallery so these confidential discussions can take place. So I'll move that the meeting be closed to the public pursuant to section 254J3E of the local 254J3E of the Local Government Regulation 2012, the purpose of discussing item 10.1, Planning & Environment Court appeal number 3156 of application for a hospital and Health Care Service at 47 Goodchap Street, Noosa hook. May I have a seconder please? Second. Councillor Lorentson. All in favour? Yes. That's unanimous. So we'll just ask if all members of the public can leave. Okay, welcome back everyone, we're back in open session. We have a resolution before us. Does someone care to move that? I'll move it. Councillor Phillips, I'll second it. Any discussion? All in favour? Yes. That's carried unanimously. Now, we won't break, we'll push on. Brings us to item eight, consideration of committee reports. 8.1, remaining environment committee report, 9th of July 2024, and committee recommendations. Item 5.1, Unitywater, Noosa netsurf plan, planning assumptions, which is referred to the General Committee. This was the only report from this committee. Can I remove from the second for the Planning & Environment Committee recommendations, please? Councillor Wegener, Councillor Stockwell, all in favour? That's carried unanimously. Yes unanimously next are the Services & Organisation Committee report recommendations. 5.1, further report. Council representation on various committees, working groups, boards and external groups, 2024.5.2, appointment of 2025. Cheryl holliday 7.1 was referred to the General Committee move I her a seconder or of I'll the. Just see if this is-- out. So that was Karen first and seconded by Councillor Wilson all in favour yes that carried unanimously next the General Committee reports, Unitywater of Noosa and Noosa plans many assumptions which would refer to the Planning & Environment Committee.2 we'll see confidential item not for public release, proposed dedication of TMI and freehold land as road, Noosaville, referred from the Services & Organisation Committee. 6.1 was the financial performances report, June 2024.6.2 recycling and renewables hub master plan stage 1 concept. 6.3 2024 LGAQ conference motions. 6.4 planning applications decided by delegated authority by 2024.7.1 was our confidential not for public release item. Planning & Environment Court appeal number D2322-2022. D23222022.2022, applications for reconfiguring a lot. 112 lots at 111 lakewater drive, Noosaville. Described as lot 4 on RP36729.7.2 is another confidential report. 2122. Q125 contract variation approach. Variation for project management services 2022. Flood recovery and reconstruction. 7.3 is another confidential item. CN00317B. Contract variation for flood reconstruction. Package 7B. Landslide remedial works at Black Pinch Road. Move and seconder for the General Committee recommendation. Move, Councillor Lorentson. Seconder, Councillor Phillips. All in favour? Yes. That's carried unanimously. Okay, there's a request from Councillors for a quick break for some water and a toilet break before we go on to the final items of the discussion. Okay, we're back on. And the next item is a report direct to the Ordinary Meeting, which is further consultation, Noosaville foreshore infrastructure management plan and Noosa River attachment plan. And we have from the Environment Strategy, Councillor somerville.

Sure, through the Chair, this report provides an update on two very important projects, the Noosaville Foreshore infrastructure master plan and the Noosa River catchment management for the sake of conversation, I'll refer to them as the Noosaville Foreshore Master Plan and the river plan. So we have just completed phase two of community engagement on the foreshore master plan and as Councillors would be well aware, we received significant community interest and feedback through that process. This report therefore recommends that, in light of that, Council undertake a further round of consultation on a revised foreshore master plan. At the moment, the project team are very much analysing and working through that raft of feedback from the community, and it is showing that there are a number of issues, including a number of issues that are relevant to the river plan. So the report not only seeks Council's consideration of acknowledging the significant amount of feedback from the community on the foreshore master plan, demonstrate that Council is absolutely listening to and will be taking into account that feedback by including a third phase of consultation for them for the master plan but it also recommends that given the relevance of some of the issues for the river plan that we understand what they are and how they relate to the river plan before we undertake any further consultation on the river plan. And further to that the report also outlines that Council are now a formal partner in the SEQ regional Council of Mayors Resilient Rivers Initiative which has been going for some time and many of the southend Queensland government have been members for some time but Noosa Council has just become part of that process which is fantastic and through that process there is opportunity for all of the local governments to develop catchment action plans in a consistent manner with South East Queensland councils and potentially an opportunity for some resources funding support for Council to do that. Given that opportunity, we also think it's a great opportunity for Council to take to revise and refresh and hopefully simplify our Noosa River master plan. Noosa excuse me, in line with that framework. So for those range of reasons, the report recommends a third phase of consultation for the 4 shore master plan. Not advancing any further consultation on the river plan at this stage. Capitalising on the partnership we would now have with Resilient Rivers and seeking some funding and resource and support through that process.

You in the next one so good morning everyone. My name is Nick Cooke. I'm here today to speak about the People's Park petition that was tabled earlier in today's meeting. I'm the principal petitioner and I'd like to take this opportunity to explain why this petition was created, what the petition calls for and what the signatories expect from Noosa wales Council and moving forward. So this petition is about more than just the People's Park and the calls to abandon the project. It's actually about car parking and vehicle access in general across the Shire. It's also about the values of the community in terms of car parking and access and the need for consultation, transparency and input into decision-making these are all key themes in the petition. So here I have a petition with just under 1,100 signatures, 1,094 signatures telling Noosa Council that they disapprove of the People's Park trial, they disapprove of the removal of other car parks across the Noosa Shire and they want transparency consultation on future Council projects. It's no secret that the People's Park project attracted immense criticism and backlash from the community and rightfully so when it saw the loss of approximately 40 to 50 car parks in a highly valued location and also when it was the product of no dedicated community consultation. The Council have dubbed this project a success however this declaration doesn't seem to take into account the community sentiments about the project and in my opinion community sentiment and approval should be the number one metric to gauge the success or failure of the project. This is why the community sentiments and values must be taken into account before proclaiming any Council project a success. Criticism abounded on social media and even local news reports. One resident told Noosa Today, and I thought it's worth reading out, that the People's Park was a visual and usage embarrassment. How do you get your kids to the Main Beach and green beach with all their surfboards and wheel boards? You're not allowed to take some surf gear on buses. How do you get old people down to the river mouth? How do you get your dog down to the Dog Beach? They went on to say some people can't afford to stay in Hastings Street and choose to stay in lovely accommodation a couple of kilometres away, restricting their access options, some would say, is discriminatory against wealthy Australians, or less wealthy Australians. That's end quote. And I agree with that. As an especially as a hinterland resident who is car dependent and you know this project saw inequitable access to people in Noosa and out of Noosa. So we have a wide cross-section of signatories on this petition, including residents, visitors to Noosa, also including community leaders. Such as the president of the Noosa Chamber of commerce and even our former Mayor Bob Abbott, who has signed the petition to express his satisfaction with the People's Park and the removal of car parks across the Shire and this is why I started the petition because I saw the very public community disapproval with the project and decided to create an Avenue for people to feedback through an official form of public participation that is recognised by Council so not social media comments and there's a petition and today the deputation I wanted to capture the disapproval from the streets and the social media and convey them to Council through this Avenue the aim of this petition is to inform Council's decision-making post-trial including informing current and future Council plans such as the Transport Strategy the Noosa car parking management plan which has to be undertaken later this year the destination management draft plan which I'll speak more about and the Noosaville Foreshore infrastructure master plan which also proposed reduction of parks, car parks from Pomona our placemaking study and the town planning amendments all of which focus on traffic congestion and car parking this Council have actually asked for feedback following the trial to quote inform ongoing initiatives to improve access and also to determine the community's more initiatives like this around the Shire when I read that I thought absolutely this petition needs to go ahead because the Council need to know people's views on this so I thought I'd just read quickly through the petition and explain a little bit in more detail so we expressed our position to we the people's the park on Hastings Street and call on Noosa Council to immediately abandon this absurd project and return the location to a dedicated car park this speaks for itself it's directly expressing 1094 people's opposition to the Council's project it also expresses the people would prefer the space to be used as a dedicated car park and that's important because there could be potential in the future to change that space this must inform any future plans to remove car parks at this location or plans to turn it into a permanent park petition goes on to say that project has seen the loss of over 40 value car parks in a location they are most required made worse by the timing of the peak holiday period this tells this Council that the these car parks are valued by the community and therefore the removal of them is not in line with the community's values people who value car parks by extension value vehicle access to Hastings Street and in Noosa and this should inform Council of the community sentiments in regard to limiting vehicle access during peak times which is something that's been raised in multiple Council plans the petition goes on to say we also call Council publicly reveal the total cost of this project to ratepayers and who in Council is responsible so this would ensure transparency and accountability which are two pillars of the public sector ethics act which councils, Councillors and Council staff must follow by law. Committee wants to know the total project cost of this project this would include but not limited to the cost of materials, the cameras, number plate recognition, the sandstone blocks, the tents, the planning and investigation if there was any, the time staff spent planning, implementing and responding to community members and media releases. It's important because if a Council implements a project, especially a failed project, the community to know the cost of the rate payer. Furthermore, in the name of accountability people want to know who in Council, what staff, department councils, if applicable, were responsible for the implementation and signing off of this project. Most importantly, clause in the petition says: we also object to the removal of other existing car parks around Noosa Shire. Now this was a key point in this and I believe it's why a lot of people signed on to this petition. It's not just about the People's Park as I said earlier. It expresses the community sentiments about car parks in general, that is they want to keep them and this is important because numerous Noosa Council plans and projects have proposed the removal of car parks to deal with traffic congestion. We saw the closure of the Lions Club car park. That was used for car parking which saw the loss of 97 car parks in Noosa. The People's Park which lost 40 to 50 car parks. The Noosaville Foreshore infrastructure master plan which proposed a loss of approximately 104 car parks. The town planning amendments proposed approximately 40 car parks on Albert Street to rezone that car park to high density living and the town planning amendments also propose a reduction in the number of car parking spaces required for new builds, particularly affordable housing. In fact, I'll just quickly read from that town planning amendment. The proposed amendments will specifically address affordable rental premises at Noosa Junction, Noosa Business Centre and Tewantin, which are serviced by high frequency of buses. It's interesting that Noosa Council's Transport Strategy talks about the inefficiency of buses. In these instances, formalised car sharing might reduce the need for a portion of car parking spaces. Each car share vehicle with its nominated space can reduce the minimum car parking rate by four spaces each. Depending on the number of affordable rental premises. Development can have a maximum of three shared vehicles if car parking is unbarred from the tiles of the individual units and remains in the common property, the minimum car parking rate can be reduced up to ten percent. So not only are we losing spaces, car parks we're actually losing them in private developments and I think it's worth noting that in my submission to that amendment I also called for extended community consultation because here we have a petition with over a thousand signatories related to carparking and not removing it yet the planning amendments only have 350 submissions so there's a disconnect between what Council's getting between official consultations and petitions particularly this one and even the infrastructure foreshore play fact 350 respondents to the planning and commitments represents 0.06% of Noosa reference. This moves me to move on to the Destination Management Plan a very important plan for Noosa which a lot of people don't know about either and I believe the people part links into this because it I've seen it referenced many times when quoted. When quoting the People's Park and the Destination Management Plan floats vehicle restrictions pedestrian only areas quote make Hastings Street and Gympie Terrace pedestrian only zones during peak times quote make Park Road access to Noosa National Park by free bus only during peak times so more vehicle access restrictions. Can Noosa Council advocate for restricted access in a booking system to the Shire's iconic landscapes for example Noosa National Park and Noosa North Shore. There's of also mandates on local tourism experiences and service operators to make them zero waste and zero emissions and that's important because the Transport Strategy also focuses on zero emissions. I think it's also important because the DMP shows councils potential outcomes that they want from this. The Destination Management Plan link resources on the website quote international examples to of model Noosa around. One of these one articles, which is not a peer reviewed article, not a peer-reviewed article, it's an opinion piece, but it's presented by a Council nonetheless, is quoted, "Reclaiming the streets: the increasing trend of pedestrianization around the world." This was written by rapid transition alliance. The co-author is Andrew Sims, who's an author, political economist, and activist. He's known for writing about quote driving cars out of our cities, the green new deal in the UK, banning car adverts, advocating the removal of car parks. In fact, in this very article that Noosa Council quote, he promotes the banning of cars, pedestrianisation and removing private cars from city centres. That article says a critical element in the adoption of car free days and protectionised zones in many cities has been the rise of activist groups pushing to reclaim public space. So it appears that Noosa Council has been driven by activism in this space. The other article that has been linked on the Council's website is reasons to be cheerful: spain's happy little Carless city. Modelling, obviously wanting to model Noosa around spain, that article says, "Calls for car-free cities can sometimes sound like a call to end driving entirely, a lovely fantasy, but one that's not likely to materialise any time soon. Where we find advocates for saner transportation, dream scenario usually hinges on the same outcome, making cities blissfully free of cars. To this end, the Spanish city of Pontevedra, population 84,000, has done something remarkable. It has reduced car use in its historic core by 90% and citywide by half, and has done it without blanket fees or bans which is interesting because I feel like this is the road Mr Councillor going down instead of banning cars, use clever engineering and some gentle nudging to get people out of their cars and onto the street. For smaller cities, they want to tap the brakes on car usage. HondaVegra offers a masterclass in tactical de-vehicularisation this seems like something Council is going down to deal with traffic congestion and the removal of the car park seems to be in line with this and it seems line with the Destination Management Plan and it's worth noting the traffic the Noosa Transport Strategy at this point, which is a 10-year plan but is reviewed at least annually and I don't have time to go into it but I think that there's some contradictions in it it's talks about encouraging transport options for the needs of both locals and visitors clear that residents want parking the yet Transport Strategy also focuses on moving people and goods rather than moving cars so they're adults with each other so Council seem to be picking and choosing parts of the Transport Strategy to implement but in that same report it talks about constraints on the dependence on active transport and public transport for most people driving a way car of life and their preferred mode of transport combined 44% of jobs in Noosa are within retail, hospitality, accommodation and healthcare sectors the nature of this work shift work late hours means that active transport walking and cycling may not be appropriate public transport is unlikely to be available this Council's own Transport Strategy also talks about constraints on the topography and the climate of Noosa the hilly terrain making it challenging for pedestrians and cyclists subtropical climate extreme weather events shortfalls in infrastructure and services I think the quarry this is from Council's in the into this it's not listed in the transport in the Transport Strategy but it's a risk to the public safety and requiring people to walk and cycle can increase those risks it also goes on to say the buses currently stuck in congestion during peak periods and offer no efficiency of a private car other than having not to run a car park so Council know these issues with relying on active transport but unfortunately relying on active transport to deal with the congestion it's also worth noting in this Transport Strategy that consultants Parsons binkroff recommended the Noosa Council consider managing the supply of car parking rather than continuing the philosophy of supplying free parking in response to demand it doesn't actually say to remove car parks the management controls that this consultant offers are control by time short-term versus long term control by price free versus paid and control by type resident versus non-resident so removing car parks doesn't seem to be congruent with improving access or the advice controls advised by this consultant the petition also further says in Future Noosa Shire residents and ratepayers must be consulted on projects like this before they implement and not after. The people of Noosa deserve transparency and important decision making. That's pretty self-explanatory. People want to be consulted given the chance to provide input before decisions are made, not on just overarching plans and concepts but individual Council projects which are stated in the petition. This just popped up one day, there was no dedicated consultation and an informal consultation was eventually conducted after the project and after the community sentiment was made very public. This is one of the reasons I started the petition, as I said, the community needed a formal and simple way to have their voice heard. And lastly, we seek this petition to be presented to the whole of Noosa Council and this is actually a very important cause, it's one required by a petitions. But it actually seeks that all Noosa Council staff, councils and decision makers are aware of the views of 1,094 people that have signed on to this petition and it's again the reason why it was created. There should be a report People's Park hopefully soon and as well as the feedback received by email I would like this petition to be included in that report but also as well as other Council reports and plans once mentioned also and future plans. It's also worth mentioning put it in comparison the 1093 signatures in say the Destination Management Plan that received 791 survey respondents so we have more responses to this petition and it's hopefully going to provide some balance to the outcomes of that Destination Management Plan consultation so in conclusion this petition should be filed and referenced when making decisions about traffic management including reviewing car parking arrangements in Noosa but it should also be considered in regards to all Council plans especially as the petition calls for transparency consultation and input-making. I would just like to finish on that this is my fourth deputation to Noosa Council and unfortunately to date I haven't received a meaningful response to any of these deputations and I hope that this may be a change and I actually receive some feedback from Council in this regard. Thank you.

Yeah, sure. Absolutely. So the intention in the next phase is absolutely to meet with all key stakeholders for both plans and interested understand in both further understand what their concerns are in relation to the foreshore master plan, what the ideas are, and you know, workshop and work through what they are to feed into the foreshore master plan before it goes back out to the broader community. And the same with the river plan so in the meantime, if we go down the path of developing or aligning our river plan to the catchment management action plan framework, we would, the resolution also seeks that we meet with key stakeholders and groups that have shown management plan today in the interim to further explore issues, concerns and also importantly outline what the process might be for aligning our plan to leave. Right. You.

Amelia Lorentson179:18

I'll try to keep this short. Thank you. We'll wait now. Referenced this great engagement as being a success. I think success for me today is this report acknowledgement that we've we got aspects of the Noosa fallshore infrastructure master plan and the river plan parts of it wrong. That our communication strategies have not been what they should be and that we understand the impact this has had on our community and we recognise the need for further improvement. That to me is success and that's what I'm applauding today. The report we have presented shows the way forward. It represents our commitment to learning from our errors and improving our approach and it demonstrates that we're ready to work with the community to ensure that our plan meets the community's needs and expectations. In terms of the foreshore master plan, further consultation and a redraft will be required. In terms of the river plan, the locals have recognised that the resilient river initiatives and the catchment action planning is having a really good structure and a better approach to consistent management of our catchment. Especially given opportunities the opportunity for better sources of funding beyond ratepayers money. It's also seen to be fairer and more importantly it's seen to be more equitable model for all of the community, not just some sectors of the community. By scaling back our river catchment plan in line with the RII, we align our strategy with other catchment plans across South East Queensland and we also ensure that we can leverage the $40 million investment from the SEQ City Deal over the next five years. I think overall what's been presented today is what will make us better positioned to ensure that the Noosa River remains a clean, safe and again more accessible natural asset for everyone and not just for some. I'm supportive of this report and I thank the staff for their hard work putting this together.