Land buy plan rejected

A CONFIDENTIAL session in council’s ordinary meeting on 24 September has revealed the Noosa Parks Association offered to team up with council to buy land on Noosa’s North Shore.
According to the agenda released on council’s website, Noosa Parks Association (NPA) offered to “contribute funds to the purchase of Noosa North Shore land”.
Council was recommended to “thank NPA for their offer”, advise NPA the “lot is not suitable for acquisition because of existing easement and current use of site” and advise NPA council would be interested in considering the “joint purchase of other environmentally significant land parcels of interest”.
The block of land in question and the amount offered was not disclosed, but an NPA spokesperson said the NPA had had a Land Acquisition Fund for the purpose of buying environmentally strategic land for “many years”.
“The fund is made up of donations from NPA members and money earned through other NPA fund-raising efforts,” the spokesperson said.
The spokesperson said the policy of “strategic land acquisition” was established by NPA many years ago and includes offering to assist council with land purchases for “conservation purposes”.
The NPA spokesperson said the block of land the organisation offered to buy couldn’t be disclosed.
“Targeted parcels of land are kept confidential to protect landowner privacy and to discourage any potential impact on property prices,” they said.
NPA’s offer to buy land on Noosa’s North Shore comes as one previously-approved and one preliminarily-approved development application for Noosa North Shore were before council.
The development applications referred to the failed Petrac development on Noosa North Shore that saw the company dissolve into liquidation before the accommodation development was completed.
The two approvals were due to lapse, so the applicant made a request to council for the approval to be extended, which was granted by council at the ordinary meeting on 24 September.