One of the key outcomes of the Planning Scheme is to preserve and protect the residential amenity and local character of the area and to avoid conflicts from incompatible land uses.
At our December 2021 Ordinary meeting, I voted against a development application to approve a home business for a meat processing facility on a rural residential property in Tinbeerwah because I believed that the development application did not meet that outcome.
The property was less than 1/5th of the minimum size required by the Noosa Plan for low impact industry.
I lost the vote 6:1 (and note that I respect the decision of the majority of Council to approve the application).
At the General Meeting I spoke about amenity and what it means.
I referenced an explanation I found in Mills & Ors v Townsville City Council & Anor: “Amenity is the benchmark by which other discreet issues are considered and assessed. Noise, odour, traffic, design, bulk, height, landscaping … are factors by which the affect which a proposal will have on the community and the surrounding area and how it will fit into and impact on that environment.”
“And the most important part of that environment is the community, the people, the families, the businesses which live and work and coexist in it. They are in fact the environment, the area, the envelope or the footprint in which a proposal must take place, fit into and be compatible with.”
“Planning schemes are community documents which must be interpreted by reference to the relevant community”. I moved a motion to refuse the application that was supported 4:3, but later reversed at the Ordinary meeting 6:1.
I said at the Ordinary Meeting in December 2021, “I am standing here today, not as a lawyer, not as a town planner, not as a Council officer. I am standing here as a Councillor, as an elected representative of this community. I stand here because the community gave me a seat at this table, so that I can use my voice to be theirs. To represent their interests, their viewpoints and fight for their rights. This is my job.
The neighbours and residents of Tinbeerwah and the 500 plus petitioners, do not believe that a meat processing facility is an appropriate business for this location. Nor do I.
Patterson Drive is an idyllic residential estate where neighbours live shoulder to shoulder on small rural blocks. It is not an industrial estate, nor an agricultural estate.” Although I lost 6:1, I was successful in moving an amendment to trial the permit approval for 12 months (5:2).
The decision I made that day, and the decision I will make every day as your elected representative, will be to protect your interest and your welfare, and not just the interest of the applicant’s development approval.
That is the same decision I made when I voted against the Short Term Accommodation Local Laws (6:1) and when I voted to approve the development application at Doonella Street, Tewantin for affordable housing and special disability accommodation (6:1).
I may have lost the vote 6:1, but I have not lost what I stand for.
(These are personal views not those of Noosa Council)
