By Margaret Maccoll
After four years in the planning the New Noosa Plan was yesterday before Noosa Council for adoption after receiving approval by the Minister for State Development, Manufacturing, Infrastructure and Planning.
Since 2016 Noosa Council worked towards the adoption of the planning scheme with the final version a result of extensive community input, review and input from various State agencies and extensive consideration by Council.
On 12 December 2019 Council sought Ministerial endorsement of the new planning scheme. Since then Council officers have been refining the content of the draft scheme in response to State considerations.
On 18 February 2020 Council received advice from the Minister that Council could proceed to adopt the planning scheme subject to a number of amendments.
Noosa Plan’s rules on short-term accommodation have attracted particular interest from the Minister with an array of requirements demanded in relation to them.
Changes of the plan were required to proposed medium, high density residential and tourist accommodation zones to ensure consistency with the Planning Act and the Planning Regulation.
Within three months of adoption of the plan Council are required to publish a comprehensive guide explaining the regulatory requirements for operating short-term accommodation in the shire.
For two years Council is to monitor the outcomes relating to short-term accommodation, tourism and housing supply across the residential zones. The monitoring needs to include comparison data to demonstrate the relevance of the scheme, the economic and social benefits across the residential zones, housing supply, diversity and tourism.
The monitoring must be “evidence-driven, comprehensive, and prepared in a detailed manner” and a report on it prepared and sent to the Minister within six months of completion.
Other amendments the Minister required of the plan included the integration of the State interest: Natural hazards, risk and resilience (Erosion prone areas) mapping, which will provide assessment benchmarks for development in the erosion prone areas.
Council had to amend the Bushfire Hazard overlay map to reflect the bushfire prone area identified on the State Planning Policy Interactive Mapping System.
The Biodiversity, Waterways and Wetlands maps have been amended to reflect the Matters of State Environmental Significance (MSES) identified on the State Planning Policy Interactive Mapping System, including nature refuges, wetlands, wildlife and fish habitat.
Changes were made to meet social housing performance outcomes and to reflect new koala conservation planning controls
Within 12 months of adoption of the plan Council is required to commence a review the provisions of the Noosa Business Centre to provide more detailed planning guidance and outcomes to reflect its role as a Major Centre for Noosa.
If adopted by Council the planning scheme will commence on 31 July.
