Planning & Environment Committee Agenda, 11 March 2025
Date: Tuesday, 11 March 2025 at 9:30AM
Location: Noosa Shire Council Chambers, 9 Pelican Street, Tewantin, QLD 4565, Australia
Organiser: Noosa Shire Council
Duration: 01:09:26
Synopsis: LGIP amendment endorsed, Climate resilience embedded, Charges cap leaves gap, Housing monitoring approved, Affordable housing expanded, STA cleanup, Stormwater reset, Performance reporting.
Meeting Attendees
Committee Members
Amelia Lorentson Brian Stockwell Tom Wegener Frank Wilkie Non-Committee Members
Karen Finzel Jessica Phillips Executive Officers
Chief Executive Officer Larry Sengstock Director Strategy And Environment Kim Rawlings Director Development & Regulation Richard MacGillivray Meeting Transcript
Amelia Lorentson 00:00.120
To the Planning & Environment Committee Meeting. Today's the 11th of March and we're commencing at 9:30am. I'd like to begin by an Acknowledgement to Country. Noosa Council proudly acknowledges and respects Australia's First Nations people and their deep and abiding connection to this country. We pay respect to Kabi Kabi Elders who have come before us and we pay respect to current leaders and emerging and their enduring commitment in pursuing a strong and healthy future for First Nations people. Welcome Mayor Wilkie, Councillor Stockwell, CEO Larry and Kim Anita and Rowena um also like to note that we have some Council observers online. Welcome Karen Finzel and welcome Tom I love this camera. Can I please request before the meeting commences that everyone have their phones switched off or on silent and I'd also like to remind Councillors of their obligations under the Council code of conduct to treat fellow Councillors and Council employees respectfully. I'll now go to Tom's a member of the committee. Oh, excuse me. Apologies. I'd like to note that Councillor Tom Wegener is not an observer. He's a member on the committee and I'd like to just note that he's attending online. That's it. Yes, I can capture that. Fine. Thank you. So first now I'll go to confirmation of minutes. Can I have a mover and a seconder? Thank you. Brian. Thank you, Frank. All in favour? Carried unanimously. Now go to, there's no presentations, no deputations, and we'll go to item seven Reports for consideration of the Committee. We need to hear from Tom as well. Oh, hello, Tom. Sorry. You've got to be loud. Thank you, Tom. You're in favour? No objections? Aye. All aye. Thank right. Thank you, Tom. We'll move to item seven Reports for consideration of the Committee. Item one, which is the local government infrastructure plan five-year review. And again, welcome, Kim Rawlings, Anita. And Rowena. And can I ask if we can just start with one of you giving us a summary or overview of the report that's in front of us. Anita Lakeland 02:48.603
I might just note that this report has been done by Glenn, but he's away on leave. I'll so present it for him. The purpose of this report is to seek Council's approval of starting the process to amend the local government infrastructure plan, which is the LGIP. It forms part Noosa Plan 2020. We're required to undertake a review every five years of the LGIP. We've undertaken that review and we've noted that it does need an amendment to support the planning assumptions that Council endorsed last year. As well well as we want to undertake a review of our desired standards of service to make sure they're more climate resilient and include climate change factors. We will undertake the amendment and we will bring that back to Council including we will have an external reviewer look at that and we'll bring that back following the preparation. Actual amendment. It will then go to the State for a state interest review and then it will go to public notification. Review so this report doesn't actually contain the amendments, it's just requesting Council endorse us moving forward in undertaking the amendment process. Amelia Lorentson 04:06.277
Thank you. Questions from the floor. Questions from you Tom. Councillor Stockwell. Brian Stockwell 04:11.843
Have we got a ballpark time horizon for when it's likely to be completed or presented back to us? Anita Lakeland 04:19.591
Over the last 12 months we've been working across the organisation with all of the infrastructure areas to undertake additional background studies and undertake the review so we're a fair way into the process so we're hoping them actually drafting the amendments and pulling it all together we can bring something back by the end of the year and. Brian Stockwell 04:42.805
Follow up if I can in that process like I'm thinking in recreation, sporting facilities is a and it has to be trunk so therefore you know Shire-wide or district scale sort of infrastructure is it going to be feasible or acceptable to include infrastructure that might be prepared preparation in terms of training facilities for the 2032 Olympics in this review? Anita Lakeland 05:14.052
I believe that would be considered trunk infrastructure so yes. We're sorry we are the team are undertaking a full review of all of our sports parks, sports facilities as well as the recreation parks and redetermining the hierarchy as well in terms of what is a Shire-wide what is district level as well. Amelia Lorentson 05:38.637
In terms of cost, future cost of providing the infrastructure or trunk infrastructure, how will the predicted population growth impact those costs and where are we going to get the money from? Anita Lakeland 05:56.067
So the population really is the demand. So, you know, what is our growth? And LGIP is 15 years, so what is our growth projected over the next 15 years? So that'll determine or inform the demand that we'll need for the infrastructure. So once we know what infrastructure we need, that will be costed, and using a proper costing method, and that's included in the LGIP, so those costings. In terms of how it's funded, developer contributions, the LGIP's main purpose is to seek developer contributions, but we know that the developer contributions are capped by the State, so it's fairly limited in terms of the real cost of infrastructure. So the ballpark is, from what I understand, 10 per cent of the real cost of trunk infrastructure is funded through developer contributions. The rest will need to be through other funding sources such as grants or general rates. Amelia Lorentson 06:56.030
So developer contributions, where is that money sort of geared to? Is it social infrastructure or essential infrastructure? Is it different to trunk infrastructure? Anita Lakeland 07:08.793
So trunk infrastructure includes, in terms of the social side of things, only land, the component for community facilities, not the actual built infrastructure. It includes trunk recreation parks, which have a Shire-wide hierarchy, so service the whole of the Shire, and then a district level, so they're both regarded as trunk, not local parks, so not your pocket parks, and then trunk road networks and bus again, the main arterial network of the road infrastructure, including the footpaths and pathways and bus stops. And then there's stormwater infrastructure as well, again, that has a large catchment size so it's the larger pipes and the larger bio-retention basins. So, it's not the local stuff that we would expect a developer to provide. Amelia Lorentson 08:04.584
Yep. So, water and so, water and sewage separate because that's Unitywater? Yes, water and sewage is provided by Unitywater. In terms of impacts on our sustainability issues, is that considered as part of the revised plan? Do we look at what does this mean in terms of asset management? Sustainability ratio, our financial ratios, et cetera? Anita Lakeland 08:30.452
Yes, so broader sustainability, yes, we want to encapsulate that in the review and that's a key difference from the current one. So, so looking forward to looking at the longevity of our infrastructure and also the climate resilience of our infrastructure. So we're planning to meet the future forecast. There's a financial model that happens in the back end of this as well. So we look at the value of all of our existing assets and then the value of the future assets. So that kind of comes to a big picture about the value and future assets. Amelia Lorentson 09:07.868
So we're off to ALGA really soon and ALGA is actually putting an advocacy piece on trying to get more money from Federal and state for specifically these sorts of purposes. I think where I'm sort of sitting is I'm just concerned we're going to get the money. It's developer costs you know we can't increase them I think these make sense that we've kept especially in the next report we're looking at is housing affordability. Any further costs that we burden developers we're going to see an impact on you know affordability of the product they're going to be able to produce but yeah so that's really my concern who's going to pay what are the impacts in terms of our sustainability ratios and what do we need to do on an advocacy level to advocate for more funds for local governments to maintain these assets. Questions or comments around the table? Frank Wilkie 10:14.021
Yeah, thank you. My question probably goes to both questions that have already been asked by Councillor Stockwell and Councillor Lorentson. In your report you mentioned that as part of the amendment process the following background studies investigations will inform the LGIP amendment and revised schedule of works. It's quite extensive. You've mentioned not only population and growth forecasts, asset vulnerability, climate risk assessment. That would be about ensuring that the future assets that we provide are more robust to be able to withstand impacts of climate change. Anita Lakeland 10:51.085
So that's an assessment of our current, like the trunk infrastructure to test how they would stand up to a variety of climate change factors. So whether it be flood, wind, heat, a number of factors, and then that will give us an idea about which of our assets are most vulnerable, and that we might need to upgrade and so and prioritise as well. So so that's we're assessing our current network at the moment. Frank Wilkie 11:26.204
So given that an application may be made, the developer may be asked to make a contribution for the provision of other assets, would those assets would be costed to be more robust and able to withstand climate change that's right. Anita Lakeland 11:43.241
So if it's identified that we need to upgrade or replace that to a higher standard, it will be fully costed and included in the plan. Yeah. Would it be mainly flood? Probably likely for our stormwater network, yes. And probably for some of the built infrastructure as well, even roads. So yeah, that's probably one of the greater impacts. What could be erosion for certain road networks or other infrastructure as well. So all the factors are being put into. A model to work that out. Frank Wilkie 12:14.751
I notice you've also taken into consideration the Shire-wide flood study, integrated traffic and land use study, recreational parks review and classification. Noosa Leisure Centre needs assessment and options analysis. That will take into account the expansion of facilities in Wallace Park precinct. Correct. Noosa Aquatic Centre needs assessment and facility upgrade plan, which people are having input into currently. Stormwater network review. Noosa Gallery investigations, because depending on where that, the new gallery goes, it's going to generate a need for more robust parkways. Anita Lakeland 12:58.898
It's the land component only, so it, you know, once a site's identified, the actual land component, whether it's purchase or preparation, can be included in the LGIP, not the facility itself. Frank Wilkie 13:13.615
But it would be the trunk infrastructure, feeding the. Anita Lakeland 13:16.054
Yes, oh sorry, as well as all the networks around supporting it. Frank Wilkie 13:19.092
Yes, yeah. Um, uh, sanitary lands pathways review, bus stops review. What about, um, the, uh, multi-court stadium that we're doing a business case for? Yes, that would be included as well. It's not an exhaustive list. Anita Lakeland 13:36.420
No, it's not just an example of yeah. Frank Wilkie 13:38.988
So it's an indication that's a fair body of work you're about to undertake, and do you, how will you be resourcing the work, and what's the time frame for delivering that body of work? Yeah. I think that's what Councillor Lorentson and Stockwell were asking as well. Anita Lakeland 13:53.008
So we started this process about 12 months ago, knowing there was a whole heap of work and updating of background studies to be done or commenced over that time, so we're well advanced on a lot of these elements. So it's about pulling it together across the organisation. So we facilitate that across the different networks. So we've been working with the various offices to get these studies done and start to review the current LGIP and pull out what the future networks. Are going look like. So as I said, we're fairly well advanced and it's now about pulling that together and actually drafting, which is a fairly big body of work in itself. Kim Rawlings 14:34.064
For Council's consideration by the end of the year. Frank Wilkie 14:36.647
Right, thank you. Amelia Lorentson 14:37.640
Thank you Councillor Stockwell. Brian Stockwell 14:43.626
One that triggered my thinking is what is the criteria benchmark for a stormwater system to be considered trunk rather than local and I'm thinking feeding into the river is a whole lot of individual pipes but within our strategies and forward planning we're looking at a system of tidal gates and you know the draft Noosa River Plan and a system of trying to keep plastic in and other rubbish out which is diffuse you know trying to stop diffuse impacts. Do they trigger you know if we have this as a overarching strategy that we want to get all this does that trigger that being trunk or are they all still considered because they're small pipes being local? Anita Lakeland 15:32.715
Yeah so there is a pipe size that determines whether it's trunk or not I guess that's up to us whether we wanted to change that I guess doing this exercise won't just look at trunk network and obviously we'll look at the whole network as well and what future upgrades might be needed to stuff that isn't trunk as well but the pipe for trunk is 650 mil. Brian Stockwell 15:55.636
So I'm thinking that perhaps there is a discussion around the policy approach to stormwater because it's a very significant issue, not just on the river but also in the interlane. Amelia Lorentson 16:08.677
Yeah hey hi Tom, question please, thank you. Councillor Wegener, please. Tom Wegener 16:19.065
With the trail network, with those trails that we're building for walking and cycling, is that trunk infrastructure? Or if it's on um Council land uh not the. Anita Lakeland 16:28.537
Not the trail network, not that recreation trail, but the pathway network and the cycle network, yes. Tom Wegener 16:36.097
Okay. Yeah, let's put it, yeah that's pretty it's growing out and there it's, you know, it's valuable, but there's not a lot of how it's paid for. I was just wondering if developers aren't actually going to be paying for that, are they? Anita Lakeland 16:54.333
Well, maybe through the development process that they might build some of the network as infrastructure charges, but I know we've got a lot of grants to actually construct that network. Was that your question? Tom Wegener 17:11.044
Yeah yeah, thank you. Amelia Lorentson 17:15.751
In terms of risk, you mentioned in the report there's a few risks. Can you elaborate the risk that financing for infrastructure falls below design standards and/or new infrastructure is delivered in an ad hoc, inefficient way? That's if we don't provide. Accurate revise. We have to under legislation, it's mandatory that we have to revise the legis every five years, is the risk if the update is not accurate. Anita Lakeland 18:01.654
If we don't undertake the exercise and respond to changes in like future projections of growth and the infrastructure isn't planned to support that growth. Then that's a risk to Council that, you know, we'll have growth and we won't have the right network or we're then without having a comprehensive plan across the organisation doing. Ad-hoc works as they arise rather than having a planned. Thank you. Amelia Lorentson 18:33.329
Any further questions? Councillor Finzel, if you have any questions. Karen Finzel 18:39.656
Yes, thank you, Madam Chair. In regards to in the attachment one in the report, there's a few questions in the list that have been in the checklist that have been marked no. How are the gaps to be addressed moving forward because in relation to the outdated DMAT information on that checklist? Anita Lakeland 19:11.243
Yes, so with regard to DMAT, you'll recall Council endorsed the revised planning assumptions last year from Unitywater which we adopt for the purposes of our forward planning. So those changed projections will be incorporated into the plan and amended and our demand for future infrastructure will reflect that in what infrastructure. Identified. Is So there's a section in the LGIP that actually has all those population forecasts and demand calculations based on that so that'll all be amended based on the new projections. Amelia Lorentson 19:50.947
Thank you. Frank Wilkie 19:53.688
I'm happy to move it, Madam Chair. Amelia Lorentson 19:55.390
Thank you. Can I have a second? I'm Councillor Stockwell. Would you like to speak? Frank Wilkie 19:59.316
Thank you, Madam Chair. Look, it's very important as work is done it's critical for capital works and asset planning. Thank you, I wish the team well. You've got a huge body of work ahead of you. I'm really pleased to hear you've already over the past year getting a head start on it. So well done and look forward to the final report. Amelia Lorentson 20:18.638
Thank you. Any further comments? No? Thank you. For the and we're looking forward to the revised report coming back to Council. Thank you very much. No further questions? All in favour? Supported unanimously. Thank you. Councillor Tom Wegener? Aye. Thank you, Tom. Yes. Supported unanimously we'll now go to item 7.2, Noosa Housing Strategy, and welcome to the desk, Rowena Skinner. Thank you, Rowena. Rowena Skinner 20:57.818
Councillor, is this report basically is an update to the Housing Strategy that Council adopted in December 2022. Council was unanimous in their prioritising a strategy to sort of assist with housing crisis that, you know, it's just has been experiencing. Part as of that Housing Strategy, one of the commitments was ongoing monitoring and updating on the situation. So this report provides an update on where Council's at with all the actions within the strategy, and it also specifically looks at a monitoring program that will commence sort of create a benchmark that can then be reported every two years going forward. Over the last year, Council's appointed a housing partnerships officer who's advancing housing projects on Council-owned land. He's working with not-for-profit accommodation providers and government agencies with an interest in housing. He's been applying for grant funding and has been successful in some of that. The Planning Scheme amendments that were prepared went through community consultation were altered and then went back to the State for final sign-off we've purchased a subscription to ID.com housing profile. Which gives us data driven information that we can complement with our own more regular monitoring as well so all of that feeds into the monitoring process that we're suggesting going forward. This report's just looking for Council endorsement of that monitoring program. Amelia Lorentson 23:09.911
Thank you Rowena. I'll throw it to the floor. Questions Councillor Wegener, Wilkie or Councillor Stockwell? Frank Wilkie 23:19.474
Yes, I've got one. Yeah, thank you for the report. Noosa Council is putting a lot of levers to play its part in the national housing availability and affordability shortage. We've got the Planning Scheme amendments, which have been out for consultation with the State currently. One of the responses has been to do a change to what is capable of being delivered on community facilities land. Currently, the zoning allows retirement villages. But we've made a change to allow affordable housing. And that was in response to requests, as I understand correctly, from church groups. Could you talk a bit about what churches are looking to provide on land that they own, zoned community facilities? Facilitator. Rowena Skinner 24:14.991
Um. Councillor, since the last, the previous government was approached by, I guess, a bunch of church groups that, as well as the Gympie association, so Gympie is yes in my backyard association, and these this great this group, along with the churches, are sort of trying to find areas where means of affordable housing, emergency housing, transitional housing, social housing, can be constructed on land that's being underutilized by whether that's church groups or other groups that might have spare land within the community facilities zone that they're not needing for their own purpose. So we started reaching out under Clare Stewart, we started reaching out to some of the religious organisations locally and sort of suggested that they might look at some of their land assets and see if there's anything that's surplus their requirements and we have had traction with some of the churches there's a lot for them to work through in terms of their own forward planning and whether they're going to need that land in the future relocatable buildings were particularly of interest into of it doesn't alienate the land if they do have a future need you know well down the track like tiny homes exactly so one of the local churches for instance was looking to that another one of the local churches had capacity for anywhere up to ten small units that they sort of thought could be something like pensioning units or similar so we are sort mind of seeing them they can use this their land for in parallel there is a process that the State's going through where the current premier has an undertaking to those groups of churches and in the association where they have reached out to the local government association to create a model code for this purpose so a model code for affordable and social housing out there. Outcomes or community housing outcomes particularly on community facilities, zoned land, predominantly zoned by religious groups but not necessarily limited to religious groups. The code is currently being drafted by a consultant and then if that's accepted by the State it would be available for councils to adopt in their Planning Scheme but we're sort of ahead of that game we're sort of contributing to the process. But we already through our amendments have provisions that if signed off by the minister will serve the same purpose. Frank Wilkie 27:40.401
Thank you so it also means that community facility, land zone community facilities around the Shire which would already house retirement villages can house community housing, affordable housing. Rowena Skinner 27:54.220
Yeah, so community housing which can obviously take various forms. It can be in apartments, it could be in detached housing, it could be in relocatable or manufactured it could be in a boarding house situation, yeah. Frank Wilkie 28:14.575
And the land on McKinnon Drive owned by, is it Sundale? Yeah. They've had an approval for a retirement village for some time now. Under the Planning Scheme amendments, if they so chose to do so, they could provide affordable community housing on that land with a new development application? Rowena Skinner 28:34.131
They would need a new development application and at that type of scale, it would still need to go through impact assessment. But there are other avenues as well, as you know, for them to sort of, if affordable social housing is part of what they were to deliver on that. There's other avenues they can go through with the State as well. Frank Wilkie 28:59.149
And the Council isn't directly providing affordable housing, it's creating opportunities for it through Planning Scheme amendments. Yes. The State partnering with community. That's right. Rowena Skinner 29:12.714
Council through the process of the Housing Strategy, Council was quite clear they didn't want to be developers. They weren't in the game to be a community housing provider itself. But there are expert organisers. Organisations that do a very good job in that space and partnering with those community housing providers who have access to all the government grants would make the most sense. And there's local private developers who are interested in partnering with those community housing has been provided as well. Frank Wilkie 29:51.656
One confusing aspect of the whole debate is the difference between a strict definition of affordable housing and providing units or dwellings which are available for a wider range of budgets and therefore affordable to a greater range of people. Could you just talk to how we seek you to achieve both those outcomes? Rowena Skinner 30:19.451
State Council with the whole half-polar legislative amendments that came in last year the State created a definition of affordable housing component which in terms of the bigger picture while of bringing in legislation obviously that supported affordable housing which helpful in terms of the bigger picture of bringing in legislation that supported affordable housing we found that it's a little bit broad for our immediate needs so with the proposed amendments which we came up with our own definition of affordable rental premises which specifically ties it to being small dwellings so no more than 100 square metres of GFA they had to they had be affordable for basically low to medium income earners so the household would pay no more than 30% of their income in rent they had to be owned or leased by a community registered community housing provider or the government itself it could include social housing but it's unlikely to so social or community housing through a community housing provider it had to be committed to that purpose for at least 20 years so well while large growth areas are producing affordable housing which is affordable for say first home buyers to purchase. That's not part of that affordable rental premises definition so we're specifically looking for housing which is rental long-term affordable rental and managed for that purpose so that it is committed long-term but. Anita Lakeland 32:28.836
The other the side in long-term but the other side in addition to the range of affordability the Planning Scheme amendments still look to provide bonus provisions for small dwellings in a range of sizes to provide housing diversity housing choice for around which I guess does somewhat provide for a range of affordabilities we wouldn't necessarily say it's affordable and it's once it's on the open market obviously there's no control the definition was about controlling that it was rental only and impact well up to years. Amelia Lorentson 33:03.781
Thank you Council we've got you've got a question. Tom Wegener 33:08.387
Yeah I was looking at action number three which says to monitor other Australian local governments and relevant overseas examples as innovative approaches to similar problems is there any good stories that you can tell us about you know similar governments dealing with the same problem? Rowena Skinner 33:32.124
Councillor most that other local governments have different sets of circumstances so we would find that there are areas that share some similarities with Noosa Shire but then they're different in other aspects so we find areas that are obviously in tourist you know things places like ski resorts places like beach resorts um but there they have a different set of circumstances in other aspects to Noosa Shire they might be more remote that they might be on island communities they might be isolated not considered part of a high-growth South East Queensland corner like ours so so there's lots of learnings from different places but I can't suggest there's any one silver bullet certainly you know even through the SEQ Council of Mayors with we've sort of started seeing what some of the western Canadian ski resort areas and places like that are doing but the you know they may have they've got a different set of legislation framework they've got it you know everybody's got different circumstances to a degree so there's lots of interesting ideas but not one silver bullet we can pick up and apply here. Amelia Lorentson 35:15.032
I'm in to do it. In terms of dwelling targets and housing diversity outcomes that's outlined in the South East Queensland ShapingSEQ 2023 are we meeting our targets our target? And how many dwellings per annum do we actually need to build to meet this demand I'm sort of asking you know where we up to? Rowena Skinner 35:49.251
Can't tell you yeah, the figure. The off the top of my head. We monitor the dwellings that are being delivered every month through building approvals and we are tracking lower than I'd like us to be tracking. We've sort of done everything we can to try and encourage a higher number of smaller dwellings and clearly we went through community consultation and there was some community pushback on that. We're still seeing staying large. Dwellings, detached houses and large duplex dwellings being the favoured product and so yeah on a monthly basis we we're certainly not seeing high delivery we see particularly we see so many houses being demolished with another house replacing it or at the most a duplex replacing it. The number of apartments independent living units for retirees any other form you know even community residences all of those they're not as high as we would like it to be but in pure yeah, numbers. About 200. Anita Lakeland 37:15.240
About 200 dwellings a year we're required to deliver to meet the target which is 5,000 2046. Frank Wilkie 37:25.681
If I can just join in now, looking at the economy.id it was saying that from the 23-24 year there were 155 separate detached dwellings built and 209 medium and high-density dwellings built. Sorry, where are you quoting that from? There's a link in the report to explore the housing story for Noosa Shire and that's the figures that I thought would be helpful to this conversation. Amelia Lorentson 38:00.202
So is a knock down in replacement, how is that counted? Is that a new dwelling? It's just it's not additional. Frank Wilkie 38:07.887
There's a new dwelling approval. Separate houses, 155, medium and high density, time written on. Amelia Lorentson 38:14.200
Approvals? Dwelling approvals, it's not yet built. Okay. So we're lagging a little bit behind. Yeah. The report notes that stats are showing a rising population over 65. Approvals. And declining numbers under 35. That was like a really big red flag for me because I think of our under 35 year olds, our essential workforce, our Noosa's, our teachers, paramedics, workers. Hospitality staff, our retail in terms of affordability, do we have a number? What is the median price for affordable housing? So we talk about we're providing incentive provisions and bonus provisions for developers to develop small products, 100 square metres, et cetera, and we're forgoing car parking spaces. But in terms of product, will that produce a product that is affordable to our workforce? And that's what I'm sort of focusing. A lot of my questions are around what are we doing? Is it our median house price? I think in Noosa it's about $1.2 million. And is the median house I've got two kids, one's 20, one's 21. Both actually have savings for a deposit. Their price bracket, I would guess, $600,000 to $1 million, $600,000 to $900,000. So my question is, what are we doing to help? Incentivise developers to build a product in that price bracket so that we can keep our workforce here in Noosa and that they don't, you know, cross the border and go somewhere that's more affordable. Rowena Skinner 40:14.066
So in the scheme amendments, or the scheme right now, we give them a greater GFA plot ratio, we give a greater site cover, we require less landscaping and we require less car parking. And in the amendments, in certain areas, they can also get an additional storey of height so that they were designed to be incentives to try and make it easier to stack up. That development on the site. Side. I think in terms of affordability, because construction is very high, with incoming rounds we'll be looking at some of the other financial triggers fantastic. In terms of development application fees, rates, infrastructure charges, et cetera, to see if there's anywhere there that we can explore incentivising as well. In of terms of affordability, terms of I think. The most affordable options are using the existing housing stock better. So spare bedrooms, granny flats. The dated resort units that are transitioning to permanent housing that are, you know, they've become, they're no longer favoured by tourists, but are in excellent locations for key workers, and so the new housing stock is probably always going to be more expensive, anything new that the construction costs, is going to make it more expensive. The standard of construction these days in terms of what goes into a house or a unit is different to what was built in the 80s. So I think our best chance of affordable housing is probably in our existing housing stock. Amelia Lorentson 42:39.431
Is there opportunity with our newly appointed housing partnership officer to include priorities. Maybe prioritise looking for these affordable housing options for our workforce you know whether it's private public partnerships whether it's like what you mentioned incentivising resort owners to but can we expand their scope of work to include you know consideration of opportunities. To help with our what I call our essential workforce crisis housing crisis. Yeah so he's doing that. Yeah excellent. He's doing that. Fantastic. It's already within the scope. In terms of existing housing stock I'm going to ask just a couple of questions in terms of short stay local laws. I've heard so many numbers. How many unregistered STAs do we currently have? I've heard numbers from 1500 and more. It's probably not relevant to this conversation. Oh, not relevant? Oh, okay. It's just with a different department. Oh, okay, sorry, Richard. I think actually it is relevant because one of our. Actions is introduction of short-stay open nozzles, transitory raiding categories was going to help address. We've identified, you know, STAs as one of the. This is it's one of the courses or it's more than just a rental stock, so, you know, throw that question out there. Richard MacGillivray 44:29.293
Council staff have gone through our entire database of the properties that we suspect were STAs. So we've actually gone through that entire list. Staff are continuing to follow up on any leads from the community and doing audits and proactively monitoring data in our community and data scanning as well, so it's safe to say we've done a very extensive search to identify a Shire. What that has identified is a number of properties that we suspected were STA originally. In some cases we've found that they've actually either ceased using the premises for a short stay, or in some cases we're actually paying transitory rates when they're actually permanently occupying the premises. So we've found of cases that was actually happening, which is why the assumptions originally were probably higher than what we've actually found in terms of random compare investigations. So we'll have some sort of some other numbers that will release shortly following the completion of this recent piece we've been doing, but certainly that number has come down from what was originally envisaged in terms of the total number of STAs, noting that we have a number that are also exempt, around 1,200 properties that are not required to be registered under the STA that still have the ability to operate. And obviously not required to be approved under the local law itself. Amelia Lorentson 45:53.308
It would be great to understand those numbers maybe at a later stage Richard, but just to understand is what we're doing in terms of our local laws, in terms of our Housing Strategy. It's actually working to produce the desired outcomes which is providing housing diversity and affordability and more permanent rental stock in the market. Thank you. Ms. Anita Lakeland 46:20.715
I might just add to that. We are doing an extensive Housing Monitoring Program which looks at the rental premises coming onto the market and we cross-check that back to the STA, I guess, master list that we originally identified. Understand what the shifts are. It's difficult to know what then goes back into the STA market, but that will happen through the STA monitoring process. But it is a moving feast of around that, I would suspect, thousand-odd properties that move in and out. So that we're trying to get a handle on and monitor. Amelia Lorentson 46:59.135
And rental bonds, do you access that information as well? And how are we going to increase and de-increase in terms of rental ready to blow and spell it all out. Rowena Skinner 47:09.588
Yeah, they're not increasing. They've been fairly static. In some areas they will go but, um, I don't part know, each of Noosa Shire is quite different as well. I think we spoke about areas such as Noosa Heads where rents are quite high. They will have a higher vacancy rate and their vacancy rate could be 4% at Noosa Heads, but their rents are high and so many people can't afford it, whereas Cooroy and Pomona might have 0.01% vacancy rate because, you know, there's less of them, they're snapped quickly and they might be more affordable to people. Amelia Lorentson 48:10.645
Thank you, any further questions? Frank Wilkie 48:13.388
Yes, what is your sense of how many vacant non-principal places residences or investment properties there are in relation to short-term accommodation? Is there any thinking around how we can encourage owners of non-principal places of residence or investment properties to long-term elect? Kim Rawlings 48:36.114
Yeah, we are, doing some work around getting a better sense of vacancy rates. At last census it tells us that there's 18% vacancy rate. Now that needs to be unpacked because as you know, people. Yeah, anyway, that needs to be unpacked. So we are, looking at a range of sort of data inputs to try and get a more accurate sense of what our vacancy rate is. And then, you know, explore opportunities to. Encourage, you know, homeowners to either, you know, put them back on the permanent rental, even for a period of time over peak periods or whatever. We will look to do things like that. You know, similar to what we did a couple of years ago in, you know writing to short-stay owners to, you know, see if we can incentivise or encourage them to put their properties back on into the rental market and, you know, at that time we tracked it and, you know, we sort of got about 120 swapped back into permanent rental for a variety of reasons. It was around the time of that sort of campaign that the Council did. So, you know, we'll continue to do those sorts of things. I think, you know, even if they, you know, if you get a hundred properties back onto the existing properties, it would take, you know, a year plus to build a hundred properties. So like Rowena talked about before, better utilisation of our existing stock is our best bet in terms of affordability and supply in the short-term. Frank Wilkie 50:14.585
And just to go back to the dwelling approvals, 155 homes, 209 units the last financial year. Dwelling approvals only, I think you're making the point that they haven't been built yet? So some may have, some may not, or some have started potentially. Rowena Skinner 50:34.083
I'm not sure where those figures come from. So the figures I look at, Frank, is every month I get the actual building approvals. So people don't get a building permit unless they they're so I look at the building permits on a monthly basis, and as does lood and tara, and so we have a pretty good understanding on a monthly basis of what's actually so this is from the length of the report, idea, community, demo. Frank Wilkie 51:05.198
Yeah, happening. So so this is from the length of the report, ID community and demographic resources, and it's dwelling approvals, new dwelling approvals. But you've touched on a point that is also critical to the housing shortage. It's not that local governments aren't giving approvals, it's that industry is also having challenges in delivering and constructing the dwellings that have been approved. Figures that were reported in the Brisbane times were 60,000 pre-approved lots in South East Queensland that at last still lay vacant because the development industry are struggling to deliver. It's a complicated issue. It's not just government lagging, local governments playing its part. The industry needs help to deliver as well. Kim Rawlings 51:54.276
Construction costs and labour costs are two major constraints to support. Amelia Lorentson 52:01.103
Thank you. Tom, do you Tom. Tom Wegener 52:02.961
Yeah, kind of an oddball question, typical of me. You know, our assumption is that the economy is going to stay relatively the same for a long time, but if there is a crash in the economy, say a recession, would that lead to a larger housing stock, do you think, where the tourism would go down and the STAs in residential neighbourhoods would much more easily revert back to long-term rentals? Anita Lakeland 52:33.130
A I'd say it's hard to predict, but it's a possibility, and I think that is the nature of our housing stock, that it does go in and out between STA and permanent, depending on the market and the supply. Much and how much they're getting. So I guess it's a possibility. Amelia Lorentson 52:57.679
This was suggested to me by just some residents. I'll throw it at you, and I think it's good by the maybe you've already done it. But has a review of our biodiversity mapping ever been undertaken more recently? Have we got land that may not necessarily have any environmental, high environmental value that could be used for our biodiversity mapping and then maybe develop it for housing? Have we done a review of that, annina? Kim Rawlings 53:33.743
We've just updated our vegetation biodiversity overlays, so the very current review has happened and it's just been approved by the State government so it's very current. But as part of the process, I mean we do it as part of this SEQ regional plan process and as strategic planners we are regularly looking at our Shire and looking at our constraints. Biodiversity is only one of them. We have a lot of others. We have bushfire, we have good quality agricultural land, you know we have landslip, we have a raft of flood, you know a raft of constraints in terms of land use and yeah so we're always looking at land suitability. You know you also need to consider our own boundary and what's within but you know as part of SEQ regional planning process and our regular strategic reviews we look at all the land to see you know what might be have some capability you know for the future it is something that's done regularly. Anita Lakeland 54:34.693
We also look at opportunities we within the urban area to utilise you know existing services and infrastructure as well. So not just about expansion it's more about an infill kind of policy that we look at as well. Amelia Lorentson 54:49.636
At opportunities within the urban area to delivered, you know, a few projects. Did do we get provided with a report from state that they're doing their own strategic reviews and looking at maximising opportunities on state land? Does that get back into our data in terms will. The work is going? Yes, it does, yes. Brian Stockwell 55:18.651
Any further questions? Amelia Lorentson 55:19.939
Thank you, I'll have you to second. Brian Stockwell 55:30.202
It's a really interesting report in that when you get to the point of setting a strategy and then trying to evaluate it and needing to monitor progress against targets, for the first time I think it's really clear how complex achieving improvement is. When this debate first started I know the ministers of the times office were saying all we need to do is increase land supply and that completely will be useless in Noosa if our aim is what I think is one of the more important targets in this report and the target is that Noosa remains home to a healthy cross-section of society including young people. Families, and key workers. I think that's at the heart of why it is Noosa Council business to be into housing. I think what the data that we have seen in this report indicated we're moving away from that. What it says is that we've seen a loss of-income low families. Now, that would be great if it was low-income families who are benefiting from economic diversification and getting higher income jobs. But what we know is it's people who've called Noosa home for decades moving out because they can't afford to live here. They can't find rental premises. It talks about, you know, what we need is a population that maintains a healthy workforce between 18 and 65, but what we find is we have these large gaps. We find that people who are here, you know, traditionally those in housing stress have been in low-income. So what we're finding is middle-income families are increasingly in housing stress as well. The so the. I think it's a good question. I think some it's a good people criticise our initiatives to increase housing affordability and increase availability of small dwellings suitable for key workers and small households as being going against population cap. I argue it's exactly the opposite. The population cap in essence is about how do we create a sustainable community and you can't create a sustainable community if you don't have a healthy cross-section of society, young people, families and key workers. So to me this monitoring activity is really important to reduce a whole system that is at the moment failing so we understand where the best levers are to approach from a policy and a planning perspective so that it may be decades, maybe more, before we start regressing the standards but we have to take these steps gradually and progressively. Amelia Lorentson 58:09.472
I probably just want to add to that. I agree with your comments, Councillor Stockwell, but just add to that. We really need to consider what housing product that we need to prioritise and that's price bracket. I think that's really important. We need to refine exactly. Refine we need the housing product and I think we need also to collaborate with private entities to make this a reality. We lose our workforce and this town doesn't function. I mean the divide between the haves and the have-nots becomes greater and if my kids move out of town, I'm going to move out of town and I just think there's just unintended consequences when we lose a younger workforce of those younger people and it's not just about buying homes as Councillor Stockwell mentioned. We have rental housing stress as well as mortgage housing stress and my numbers say that 35% of people that are renting are actually having housing stress which means they're spending over 30% of their rent compared to about 12.9% of people that are enduring mortgage stress. It's also that like, you know, the old boys that I serve with, this is their home and they have never had another home other than Noosa. And we have a responsibility both ethically and as a Council to, you know, do what we can to provide rentals and affordable housing products in that bracket of six to nine hundred thousand to keep this community functioning and healthy. Frank Wilkie 01:00:06.955
Yeah, I thank each and every one of you because you've been on this journey for a long time. Prior to the Noosa Plan 2020 coming in you were flagging and working the housing needs assessment. You knew where the stress points were. We worked together to put together Noosa Plan 2020 which sought to restrict further spread of STAs in residential neighbourhoods. The Planning Scheme amendments to do so more in the more in the medium density and high density, all residential neighbourhoods. And as Councillor Lorentson and Mr Stockwell have said, it's a multi-faceted problem. We have to work in partnership with the State, private industry and use our Planning Scheme to the best of our ability to provide the opportunities for a diverse range of housing to suit a range of budgets and also that special end of special end the market where the housing needs to be subsidised and managed by a community housing provider or the State and I note in the report that the State has already taken up an opportunity to purchase land in Tewantin to provide social or affordable housing. Writing which were on CBD. So it is good to monitor our progress on this. Perhaps there's no more important piece of work that this Council will ever do than work to play our part with other levels of in addressing this national shortage of reliable and affordable housing. Thank you for the report. Q&A. Amelia Lorentson 01:01:55.636
Thank you very much. Prime Minister Trudeau thank you, honour. Thank you. And I welcome to the desk male speaker: just hold. And Richard. And we move to item number eight. Reports made by the committee, planning applications decided by delegated authority. Welcome Mr. to the meeting. I will ask you guys if you can give us a simple overview of the delegation report in front of us. Patrick Murphy 01:02:33.914
Um our monthly report, each on the applications that have been decided by delegated authority for the month of January. Noting the applications that we are able to decide under the delegation. A bit of a quieter month, January. Number of public holidays. Staff on leave, so the number of applications was a bit down on the norm, with 22 applications decided. Looking at the list, nothing of major significance within the list. Amelia Lorentson 01:03:12.794
Questions? Frank Wilkie 01:03:15.214
I'm just curious about the one on production street. Charged challenge with to several sorry conditions include mud crabs aquaculture as an aquaculture tank. Patrick Murphy 01:03:30.098
Well you caught me on the run to be honest I'm not sure of the actual detail of the application but I would assume that would be the content of the application thank you. Brian Stockwell 01:03:47.787
I do have trouble with this data. Amelia Lorentson 01:03:49.469
Patrick, we just spoke about development targets and approvals. Is there opportunity or can we maybe consider as part of the delegated report to have what our targets are and how we're going? Is that something that should be, shouldn't be included, but be encouraged to have just a running report to understand how close we are to our targets as know, dictated under the shaping plan. Richard MacGillivray 01:04:22.862
Yeah, we certainly can do, I think probably monthly is probably not overly helpful, but certainly on an annual basis around how we're tracking. As Kim Rawlings mentioned earlier there's a difference between approvals issued and then actually delivered product as well so that's closely monitored on a monthly basis in terms of what's actually approved but then what's actually finalised and actually ready for occupation and so those are the two elements we need to monitor closely, but certainly I think doing at least an annual or a six-monthly report is a good idea and helpful in terms of how we're tracking with approval. With and also delivery as well. I just think importantly to note that the decisions that are made by through planning will not reflect all the dwelling approvals and the secondary dwelling approvals that are issued so it's more relevant I think in terms of what Richard said around building approvals. Yeah because a number of homes and secondary dwellings won't require any planning approval it's all accepted development under the Planning Scheme so a large volume of the housing doesn't actually get assessed by Council. It's deemed to comply and certifies and will approve those without any approvals from Council as part of that. Amelia Lorentson 01:05:38.049
And that will be catched under a different report? Richard MacGillivray 01:05:40.317
Yeah, correct. We could look to do that on a new it would be a good idea to average out the ups and downs throughout the year. Amelia Lorentson 01:05:47.689
Thank you very much. Questions? Frank Wilkie 01:05:52.789
The report shows there's 22 approvals given in the month of January. You said it's a slow month. Can you refresh my memory? What's the typical number of approvals in an average month? Patrick Murphy 01:06:03.186
Mid-thirties, later mid-thirties is generally the trend that we're seeing. Frank Wilkie 01:06:08.501
Yes, yeah. Was December slow in January? Was that a busy month? Richard MacGillivray 01:06:17.401
December's usually relatively busy. I believe we were over 30, maybe mid-thirties in the lead up to Christmas. A lot of applicants and you can imagine clients are interested for receiving approvals and decisions. Before break. The noting a lot of consultants and industry take a good break over the Christmas period so that's usually a higher period Patrick might be able to pull up in the report. It is generally a busier month for those reasons that Richard has identified. Patrick Murphy 01:06:47.729
Generally again a lot of consultants away, staff away are quite a then you often see little bit of a dip going into the end of financial year and then picking up after that period. And may I ask how are the staffing levels in DA? They're good. We have a vacant plan which has been recently filled and that will be starting in the next few weeks. That will complete the number of planners. We had a new compliance officer yesterday. There's been a vacant compliance officer role for a period of time so that's great that we've got someone now on the ground. Development engineering has got a number of roles that have been filled as well. They'll be starting, one officer starts next week and then the second officer starts a couple of weeks after that. So there's some good resources coming through the team at the moment. Really good. Given how difficult planning you know, planners and engineering roles are across the State at the moment. So good to have access to some really good candidates for those roles. Amelia Lorentson 01:07:52.066
Thank you. Brian Stockwell 01:07:56.349
Just four to six hay street. Yeah. Was the extension to the currency is only mentioned for the operational work. So the change in terms of the amount of I just remember that application being a little bit tricky I think from memory in terms of lot buyouts and mango trees and things like that. Can you just tell me what. I might have to come back to you on that one Councillor just to give you details. I had a look on the mapping and it is the site I think it is but it only talks about two lots where the original approval was second or third stage being combined. Amelia Lorentson 01:08:40.940
Any further questions, Councillor Stockwell? Sorry, werther? No, I'm good. Thank you. Fantastic. No further questions? All those in favour? Can I have a mover and a seconder? Tom, do you want to move? I'll move it. Thank you and a seconder please. Thank you, Mayor Wilkie. All in favour? Fantastic. Thank you. Patrick. Thank you, Richard. There are no confidential sessions and I now declare the meeting closed at 9.42am. Thank you everyone for you your everyone attendance. For and I extend a 10.42 excuse me and thank you. And thank you those online attending. Thank. Related Noosa Council Meetings
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