By Margaret Maccoll
Noosa Yacht and Rowing Club will have to share its exclusive car park, the Waterfront Restaurant will not be able to serve drinks and canapés on riverside land following wedding ceremonies and there will be a limit on exercise classes.
These are among the outcomes of the Noosaville Foreshore Land Use Master Plan that Noosa Councillors voted unanimously in favour of at its General Meeting on Monday.
Councillors agreed the plan achieved what residents wanted from the public space – to have “a peaceful, relaxing public open space for people to enjoy the river”.
Determined following an extensive consultation process the plan attracted considerable community input and several petitions particularly in relation to the use of land by the Waterfront Restaurant and proposals for Chaplin Park.
Cr Ingrid Jackson said her one disappointment was “that the Waterfront Restaurant will not be allowed to serve drinks and canapes after wedding ceremonies on the small patch of grass next to the restaurant”.
“This is a disappointment for wedding couples and a large number of residents, as popping a champagne cork after a ceremony is standard practice and informally takes place all over Noosa Shire wherever weddings are held,” she said.
However she said she would “bow to the majority view”.
“In general, I feel the Master Plan is an excellent document and I will be voting to support it,” she said.
The plan will allow coffee kiosks to remain on the foreshore with limits, trial a dog off-leash area in Chaplin Park and agree to council considering a feasibility study for the establishment of a multi-use water sports facility based at the Noosa Yacht and Rowing Club and investigate construction of a multi-use roofed structure in Chaplin Park. Exercise class groups will be restricted in number but one-off markets permitted.
Councillors will make their final decision at the Ordinary Meeting this evening. If the plan is agreed upon Council will authorise the CEO to write to the Department of Natural Resources, Mines and Energy to seek endorsement of the adopted Foreshore Plan as a Land Management Plan for the foreshore reserves in accordance with the provisions of the Land Act 1994.
