Noosa Council has endorsed revised planning scheme amendments reflecting community feedback gathered during an eight-week consultation earlier this year for submission to the State Government.
Mayor Frank Wilkie said the amendments aimed to deliver greater choice of housing, increase housing supply for residents and key workers plus help meet state-imposed dwelling targets.
“These proactive measures are designed to allow us to have autonomy over the future planning of Noosa, rather than waiting for state imposed more drastic measures to achieve the targets through the SEQ planning process,” Cr Wilkie said.
The package also includes incentives for private landowners to provide affordable housing to help address homelessness.
The Mayor said these amendments further strengthen Council’s approach to limiting short-stay accommodation (STA) in medium and high-density residential areas.
“A key purpose of the amendments was to ensure that all residential zones serve as neighbourhoods for residents, not STA businesses,” Cr Wilkie said.
“The STA Monitoring Report and Housing Strategy both indicated STA restrictions are needed to strengthen the social fabric of our community in the long-term by limiting the loss of dwellings for permanent residents to STA.”
Cr Wilkie said ensuring the planning scheme’s residential zones worked as intended was central to providing much needed housing and to meet state-imposed dwelling targets in a manner that maintains Noosa’s much treasured lifestyle and character.
“Rather than adopt high rise or expand the urban footprint, providing units as intended, not houses, in existing medium density residential (MDR) and high density residential (HDR) zones was seen as the solution.
The intention is the medium and high-density zones are utlised over time as intended and can accommodate multiple dwellings, which increases housing availability for many more.
“We took on board community feedback that smaller lots in the medium density zones should allow houses, due to feasibility of providing units on them.”
Council has also revised the definition of small dwellings up from the proposed 75sqm to the current 100sqm in response to concerns about the size being inadequate to meet accessibility requirements, financially unviable to build and limiting in terms of the number of bedrooms able to be offered within the small footprint.
“Keeping the current provisions will provide more of a mix – from studios to three-bedroom apartments, suitable for downsizers.”
“The changes include incentives to encourage the delivery of affordable rental premises on key sites such as the former Noosa Heads Bowls Club site and Noosa Business Centre.”
Council received 475 submissions including an online petition during eight weeks of community consultation on the proposed amendments earlier this year.
“Our planning staff have spent the past few months reviewing each submission and developing tweaks across key areas,” Cr Wilkie said.
The endorsed package of amendments also extends operating hours for new food and drink outlets in Noosa Junction to midnight, seven days a week.
This is already in existence for some operators and creates a level playing field for business, noting these provisions only apply to new businesses.
Noise is regulated by the State office of Liquor and Gaming and Council will continue to work with this office to achieve a balance that supports Noosa Junction to continue to be a vibrant hub, offering great restaurants and entertainment, while minimising impact on surrounding residents.
Council will be looking at various options to achieve this balance in consultation with businesses and the surrounding community next year.
