Deputations and public questions to council, each opening on what council's minutes record of it.
2023-12-14
Public question
Ordinary Meeting December 2023
Brian O'Connor
Heard at the meeting. Council's recording has these questions from 18:44; our transcript is below.
▶ Hear it — council's recording, from 18:44
The feed timestamps the whole public question block rather than each speaker, so this starts at the top of that block.
What the minutes record
Question 1
Will Noosa Council consider stepping up the effectiveness of its pre-development concierge service to people with a good idea who wish to do the right thing by discussing development proposals in depth and ahead of a formal decision being made, so they don't have 'false hope' their proposal will get up at a council meeting; their considerable up-front costs wasted as a consequence?
Response from Richard MacGillivray, Director Development and Regulation
Pre-lodgement meetings are an important and valuable tool for both the development industry and Council development assessment staff. The meetings, which are commercial in confidence, provide the opportunity for open dialogue outside of the formal development assessment process, with prospective applicants receiving guidance and advice regarding the alignment of their development proposals with the expected outcomes of the Noosa Plan. The meetings are attended by representatives of Council’s development assessment team including senior planners, development engineers, and environment officers. Advice is also regularly sought from other internal branches, including Council’s Strategic Planning branch, to ensure participants are well informed of all related issues and all positive aspects of the proposal. Written notes are also provided to the attendees summarising the issues discussed in the meeting and providing clear guidance on whether the proposal demonstrates compliance with the planning scheme and is likely to be supported at an officer level. Notably, most significant development applications are preceded by a pre-lodgement meeting. In some instances however, prospective applicants choose to proceed with their preferred form of development despite advice of its conflict with the planning scheme. More than 100 pre-lodgement meetings have been held over the past two years. Council encourages participation in these meetings by only requiring a modest fee and ensure meetings are arranged with staff within a short timeframe. It is also encouraged for applicants with larger projects to request multiple pre-
lodgement meetings to enable a continuous refinement of the proposal against the provisions of the planning scheme. We are committed to maintaining our engagement with prospective applicants and will continue to encourage participation in pre-lodgement meetings prior to an application being lodged.
Question 2
Will Noosa Council make things easier for those wishing to employ people and diversify the local economy in the 'Noosa Way' by bringing forward consideration of the scheduled Employment Land Review?
Response from Kim Rawlings, Director Strategy and Environment
The Employment Land Review is currently being finalised. Key outcomes of the report will include the identification of employment trends and opportunities and how that impacts available employment land and what those implications are for Noosa. In particular, identifying how existing land zoned for industrial and innovation can be used efficiently and what the future land requirements may be to deliver a diverse economy and employment growth. The report will also make recommendations regarding the provisions in Noosa Plan 2020 to support employment outcomes including considering levels of assessment. These outcomes will be discussed with Council once complete.
This is council's own minuted record, in council's words. Nothing is reworded: the questions, headings and bullets are laid out as the printed minutes set them. Left out are the speaker's name (it heads this page), the minutes' page-header dates, and any “meeting adjourned” line the extract caught. Where an officer answered, the answer is minuted with the question and appears above.
Transcript of the recording
What this is. Transcript of council's recording, produced by automatic speech recognition and not checked line by line against the video. Names and figures are where this kind of transcript fails first. It is our transcript, not council's record. Recording © Noosa Shire Council. Council's own recording is linked above; where the two differ, the recording governs.
18:44 Mayor Stewart: Mr O'Connor, welcome.
19:06 Speaker 3: My first question is this. Will Noosac Council consider stepping up the effectiveness of its pre-development concierge service to people with a good idea who wish to do the right thing by discussing development proposals in depth and ahead of a formal decision being made so they don't have false hope their proposal will get up at Council meetings, their considerable upfront cost wasted as a consequence?
19:40 Mayor Stewart: Thank you Richard.
19:41 Speaker 3: Thanks Mr O'Connor.
19:43 Mayor Stewart: Take a seat.
19:45 Speaker 2: I like the formality of that. Thank you. Pre-lodgement meetings are an important and valuable tool for both the development industry and Council development assessment staff. The meetings which are commercial in confidence provide the opportunity for open dialogue outside the formal development assessment process. With prospective applicants receiving guidance and advice regarding the alignment of their development proposal with the expected outcomes of the Noosa plan. The meetings are attended by representatives of Council's development assessment team including senior planners, development engineers and environment officers. Advice is also regularly sought from other internal branches in the organisation such as our strategic planning branch to ensure the participants are well informed of all related issues and all positive aspects of their proposal. Written notes are provided to all attendees summarising the issues discussed in the meeting and provide clear guidance on whether the proposal demonstrates compliance with the planning scheme and is likely to be supported at an officer level. Notably, most significant development applications are preceded by a pre-lodgement meeting. In some instances, however, prospective applicants choose to proceed with their preferred form of development despite advice of its conflicts with the planning scheme.
21:03 More than 100 pre-lodgement meetings have been held over the past two years. Council encourages participation in these meetings by only requiring a modest fee and ensuring meetings are arranged with staff within a very short timeframe. It is also encouraged for applicants with larger projects to request multiple pre-lodgement meetings to enable a continuous refinement of the proposal against the provisions of the planning scheme. We are committed to maintaining our engagement with prospective applicants. We will continue to encourage participation in pre-lodgement meetings prior to an application being made.
21:44 Speaker 3: Will Noosa Council make things easier for those wishing to employ people and diversify the local economy in the Noosa way by bringing forward consideration of the scheduled Employment Land Review?
21:59 Mayor Stewart: Thank you. Welcome Kim. Thank you.
22:06 Speaker 4: Good evening. The Employment Land Review is currently being finalised. Key outcomes of the report will include the identification of employment trends and opportunities and how these impact available employment land and what those implications are for Noosa. In particular, identifying how existing land zoned for industrial or innovation purposes can be used efficiently and what the future land requirements may be to deliver a better employment plan for diverse economy and employment growth. The report will also make recommendations regarding the provisions in the Noosa Plan 2020 to support employment outcomes, including considering levels of assessment. These outcomes will be discussed with Council once complete.
22:48 Mayor Stewart: Thanks Kim. Thanks Mr O'Connor. Appreciate your time.
Also by Brian O'Connor
Others who spoke that day