Request to Reopen the Consultation Period for Proposed Amendment No. 2 to Noosa Plan 2020

Amelia Lorentson4:25

That Council, requests the CEO to reopen the community consultation for proposed Amendment No. 2 to the Noosa Plan 2020 for an additional two weeks from 22nd of July 2024 to 4th of August 2024. We have a seconder for that please. Second. Councillor Phillips. We have a fourth. Councillor Lorentson. I initially made this request on June 29th but unfortunately it did not go ahead. I'm now bringing this matter to the Council for a decision. My primary concern is that we had two concurrent consultations involving complex documents, the Noosa vale foreshore infrastructure master plan and concept designs for resilience which was over 100 pages. In the proposed Amendment No. 2, over 1,000 pages. Both documents were complex and both impacted and challenged residents and businesses. The consultation for the Noosa vale foreshore infrastructure master plan and concept designs closed on July 7.7th, it attracted significant media interest, community rallies, petitions, and a record number of submissions. In my opinion and that of others in the community, this intense focus I rescheduled the consultation. Process, the proposed Amendment No. 2 to the Noosa Plan 2020, a document of substantial importance with far-reaching implications for residents and businesses. The proposed amendments could potentially impact or change residents existing planning rights, property values, businesses and the character of Noosa, therefore we must allow our residents adequate to review the changes and provide informed feedback. The Noosa Chamber of commerce held a forum breakfast on 25 June which was well attended with over 120 businesses. Given the significance of the documents, school holidays impact and inconvenient timed pop-ups and meet in the park events, they too have requested an extension to the council's consultation period. Now leave this to the floor for discussion.

Brian Stockwell44:17

The Council requests the CEO to reopen a community consultation proposed Amendment No. 2 to the Noosa Plan for an additional, oh, I have to work out the number of days. Oh, no, just amendment to the Noosa Plan from July 19 to July 28. That's 10 days, that's my amendment.

Brian Stockwell64:31

I'm happy to move along the lines. Excuse me. No, sorry, I'm in the middle of moving a motion, Councillor Finzel, so I'll do that and you can ask your question afterwards. The Councillor requests the CO to reopen the community consultation proposed Amendment No. 2 to the Noosa Plan from the 19th of July to the 28th of July notify the community Facebook and media release with updates, right, on the Your Say web page

Nicola Wilson61:45

Can I just take a clarification on that? Yes. I don't think Your Say is how you notify the community, but how a is made. So you would reopen the community consultation for a proposed amendment via Your Say and potentially email submissions, and that would be notified to the community via Facebook and media really is.

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. 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 intellectual. 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 including informing-trial 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, the Pomona 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 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 Noosa 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 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 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 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 make Park Road access Noosa Newton 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. Of these one of these 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, their 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 it's clear that residents want parking yet the 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 for people, driving a of way 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 um I think the quarries uh in plays 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 congestion it's also worth noting in the 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 the 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 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. 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.

Frank Wilkie61:01

Okay, so, for example, would what you would, an amendment along the lines of what you're considering being a Council requests the CEO to reopen the community consultation to propose Amendment No. 2 to the Noosa Plan 2020 from 9th of July to 28th of July and notify the community by Facebook posts and the Your Say website, web page. And perhaps one media release may be added to that. I hope I'm human fire. Facebook, Your Say, and media release.

Frank Wilkie65:25

So this it's the Council requests the CEO to reopen the community consultation for most Amendment No. 2 to the Noosa Plan 2020 from 19th of July to 28th of July 2024 and notify the community by Facebook and media release take out the next with you take out and notify the community get rid of and notify the community with updates on the you'll say web page let's move Councillor Stockwell and you're prepared to second that for the purpose of debate second by Councillor Wegener.

Jessica Phillips14:50

So I just want to speak on behalf of the notified motion by Councillor Lorentson and my support for that and there's a few reasons why. I just wanted to triple check the June /July school holidays as a parent and speaking on behalf of many of our community members that are family members, parents trying to work through the school holidays, the consultation period overlapped with school holiday period for June /July. It ran from the 22nd of June to the 7th of July and I know myself how difficult it was to work through school holidays and the time to digest the information just as a Councillor, let alone the community that we're talking about language that not everyone understands and so really important to me that we give community opportunity to digest the information, talk, which our community do. They love to down and have a barbecue with each other don't they and chat about the things that are affecting them and this is one of those things that is affecting our community and I believe that over that period we probably had families get together and chat about how this would impact them and so then they go back and they digest that information and they go to someone they might trust with that information and take time to really understand the impacts that is going to have and so one thing that I'm concerned about and not to take away anything from the staff because I really think they've done a great job in with the workload that I've even seen you have on and we've discussed the workload with consultation so I want to firstly acknowledge that because I'm not taking away from that but I want to go into reality which is out there in our community winter, sickness, school holidays, cost of living like all of these are impacting our day-to residents and so when we throw things out to them with consultation on the foreshore river plan and these amendments I believe that takes time and I understand what you're saying Mr. Mayor but I really want to support that the amendment to give the community some more time to chat with each other and see what information they can give us to make sure that we're making really sound decisions in here. Thanks.