1 ATTENDANCE & APOLOGIES ¶
00:00:00 Councillor Wegener: Welcome to the planning and environment committee meeting date. It is May 9th, 2023. I declare the meeting open and would like to acknowledge that we are meeting on the traditional end, the Kabi Kabi people, and I pay my respects to their elders past, present, and emerging. Tonight, or today, we have committee members, Mayor Stewart, Councillor Finzel, and Councillor Stockwell in the room, along with Councillor Lorentson. Can I have a mover and a seconder for a confirmation of the minutes from the last planning and environment committee meeting of April 2023? Councillor Stockwell moves it. I'm happy to second. Councillor Finzel seconds it. Put it to a vote. All in favor? Unanimous?
00:01:00 Our first report this morning is, well, no, we have no presentations, no deputations, so we'll go straight to the reports for consideration. And so first is the Shaping Southeast Queensland Review Project, and we have Rowlina Skinner, Rowlina, to walk us through it. Speaker 1: Good morning, councillors. So this report basically provides a brief update on the current review that Shaping SEQ Regional Plan is going through. As councillors might know, as a result of the housing summit last year, the Palaszczuk government announced there would be a review of the SEQ Regional Plan in an attempt to both update it, but particularly with a focus on housing and associated infrastructure.
3 PRESENTATIONS ¶
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4 DEPUTATIONS ¶
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5 REPORTS FOR CONSIDERATION OF THE COMMITTEE ¶
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5.1 SHAPING SEQ REVIEW PROJECT ¶
00:02:00 So I will be having a workshop with you in the coming days more about that review. It's a very tight review, but one question that the state has asked specifically of local governments is to review and nominate any changes to the list of great places that are included in shaping SEQ. And the great places are specifically built environments, you know, typically town centres or busy roads that are vibrant, busy places that contribute to economies and architecture and social and community outcomes. While, you know, we have no end of great places in Noosa Shire, the focus is particularly on built areas. Councillor Wegener: And there's been two places that have been suggested.
00:03:00 Speaker 1: There are two at the moment. So Hastings Street, Noosa Heads and Maple Street, Cooroy have been included since 2017. And I'm proposing that we nominate five additional ones for inclusion in the next draft of the Regional Plan. Councillor Wegener: Before going into what the five might be, could I just ask quickly, is it an advantage for Noosa Council to have more places before the SEQ? Because sometimes I feel as though the residents would like to just hide and say, nobody here, don't look at us. Speaker 1: I really can't answer that. And the discussions with the state officers seem to be that they're also not sure what the particular benefit of being nominated as a great place is. One could imagine that for some local governments that are particularly encouraging growth,
00:04:00 there has an advantage of attracting populations to that place. But for others at this stage, there's no particular policy benefit to it. The state is looking at whether they can create policy benefits from it in terms of placemaking opportunities. But there's nothing concrete that is a particular benefit. Deputy Mayor Stockwell: One of the things that I think is good of the places is the descriptions of the five new places actually are a distillation of where our strategic plans are. And we're looking at the direction of that after those places in our own planning scheme. If, for example, we were to receive a development application that was going away from those features and values, having a higher level of support if we were to be challenged in terms of saying, well, no, your development inhibits
00:05:00 or is a constraint on us maintaining those features and values of, let's say, Noosa Junction or Peregian Beach or Pomona, which are acknowledged in the SEQ regional plan. So there's a higher level of planning acknowledgement of those key features of the place. I think that's probably one of the important opportunities. I think it's also good to ensure that the level of acknowledgement across the regional plan is similar in that it should, in the future, the state, for example, have Olympic funding for great places or it'd be good to ensure that our council area has a similar level of identification of its key centres and areas as the others around us. Councillor Wegener: So in a way, are you saying that this is sort of a vindication that Noosa's done it right?
00:06:00 I mean, we have these great places. Look at them. Wow. Let's not change them. Yeah. Deputy Mayor Stockwell: And to acknowledge at that higher regional plan level that these are the key attributes of these places that we want to continue into the future. We don't want them threatened by inappropriate development. Speaker 1: I think when they came up with the list in around 2016, 2017, it was sort of a last minute thing with the regional plan and every local government took a very different approach. So some local governments in Southeast Queensland have nominated just one or two. Some, as I've highlighted, have 17. So there is no consistency around the region and perhaps the state might look at whether they bring in the state architect or someone else to sort of have a look at all the places nominated by all local governments and perhaps do a rationalisation and judgement on those
00:07:00 collectively. Deputy Mayor Stockwell: Do you have a question? So I have one. The motion as it's worded talks about authorising the chief executive as detailed within the report. There was one little glitch in one of the sentences. Do we need to identify that as a change or do we just take that as an administrative change? Speaker 1: We're more than happy to correct grammar than those, obviously. Deputy Mayor Stockwell: I'm happy to move. Thank you. As per the recommendation, just acknowledging there is little grammatical change needed in Yippie Terrace. Speaker 3: Did you want to send a motion for that or? Councillor Lorentson: No. I think. Councillor Wegener: Also, there is one thing that you may be missing. That is, the Croy Hitchell Land playground should be, is a part of the Croy surrounding
00:08:00 area. But should residents enjoy a lot of themselves in Croy and the town of Yippie Terrace? Well, there's a lot of fun atmosphere. A little bit of fun, but it doesn't mention the adventure playground that's on page six. And I'm sure that that's just an administrative. Deputy Mayor Stockwell: Interesting though, Croy is already on there. Yeah. And that there may be that they'll look at that addition to the existing description of the site. Yeah. Yeah. It applies to the detective. Councillor Wegener: Okay, so no questions. Oh, Amelia, yes. Councillor Lorentson: Hi, Rowena. Just in terms of public consultation, the report indicates that the community will be given an opportunity to make a submission or provide some feedback. Can you talk us through that, please? Speaker 1: So, in coming days, I'll be having an actual workshop with you on the SEQ regional plan
00:09:00 review and talk a little bit about their process and timeline. But the state is scheduled to have a discussion with the regional plan review. We will have a draft plan out in mid-June, I believe. And that will come out for a 30 business day public consultation period. So, anybody will be able to make feedback on the whole SEQ regional plan during that stage, including council, including property owners, et cetera. So, that's their schedule at this stage because they won't have a finalised plan by the end of this calendar year. Thank you very much. Councillor Wegener: Thank you. Thank you. And you have, I'd say, one or two more questions? Councillor Finzel: No. I've got no more questions. No, go above. Councillor Wegener: Unanimous. Thank you very much for that. Councillor Finzel: Thanks, Rowena. Thank you. Councillor Wegener: Next, we have this set of these regional climate resilience alliance. We have Sally Benson to come and talk, walk us through this.
00:10:00 Speaker 4: Good morning, councillors. Councillor Wegener: Please take your time because this is, like, this is pretty much it for today, so. Speaker 4: I was brief to be brief but well excitingly a climate alliance is proposed to be established in southeast Queensland and the goal of that is to formalise a partnership between SEQ local governments to work collaboratively together on climate change. What this will provide is regional solutions to climate risks, regional approaches to projects and building resilience and large scale efforts to reduce emissions that will deliver economies of scale, cost savings and regional benefits as well as local ones. So a climate alliance is an established structure of local government partnership and it's originated in Victoria where there's really successful high-profile large-scale projects that have delivered hundreds of thousands of tons of emissions reduction and millions of dollars of saving for local governments and their communities.
5.2 SEQ REGIONAL CLIMATE RESILIENT ALLIANCE ¶
00:11:00 So there was in April 2021 there was we joined five other SEQ councils in a climate resilient councils pilot project to assess the best model of regional partnership for SEQ. And so what happened was we looked to Victoria. And the huge achievements those alliances have done. And now two years later we've come up with a refined model for the Queensland Climate Resilience Alliance to be called SECRA. The acronym stands for Southeast Queensland Climate Resilience Alliance. So we've got just a bit about the current landscape of climate commitments across SEQ. Of course, we share the state government context of 30% emissions reduction by 2030. 50% renewable energy by 2030 and net zero by 2050.
00:12:00 Also, local governments have our own targets, of course. We've got net zero by 2026. And there's several quite variable commitments across the region. So what we see is there's no collaborative, there's no coordinated approach to these shared goals. And that's the space that the alliance seeks to live and exist on. And that's the space that the alliance seeks to work in. To help us learn from each other and work together on projects that are going to really make a difference. So the structure of the proposed Southeast Queensland Climate Resilience Alliance is membership based. So there's a tiered membership structure banded according to population. This makes NUSA a $10,000 per annum membership. The partnership is formalised simply by MOU. This is which requests a three year commitment. So the recommendation, well, what that membership fees provides is the annual budget for the alliance to fund a coordinator,
00:13:00 a shared staff resource for the region to apply for larger pools of grants and funding for big scale projects. To coordinate, manage projects. And to coordinate the network of the alliance. It's a pretty simple governance structure. So the recommendation from our team to council is that NUSA join the Southeast Queensland Climate Alliance this year for a fee of $10,000. And sign the MOU with a commitment for three years. That the simple governance structure is two tiered, executive, steering committee and then coordinators committee. And we recommend that the manager of environment sit on the executive steering committee. And the carbon reduction officer sit on the coordination committee to really work on projects that require technical expertise.
00:14:00 Councillor Wegener: I understand that NUSA is actually quite proactive in the setting up of CCRAS. Speaker 4: Yes, we have. Since the Climate Resilience Council's pilot project, which was April 2021, we've been in a working group with, that was a five council participation project. But since then we've been working with nine councils in that sustainability staff level to work together to get it to this point. And this approval process is happening across the region now. Lockyer Valley was the first to say yes, they'll be a member. Deputy Mayor Stockwell: I'm happy to move it. Councillor Finzel: Happy to second. Deputy Mayor Stockwell: Thank you for speaking to this. Following on from that, it's great to see that this initiative looks like it's getting ahead of steam.
00:15:00 As you just alluded to, I understand Sally and no doubt Andy have been really instrumental in driving this alliance. And what was said previously is really important that these sort of alliances in Victoria have led to millions of dollars of savings for local government. And if we look at the challenge we've got for the next three years is to get to net zero organisationally. One of the biggest parts of our electricity bill is street lights. And because Energex has got a monopoly, it's a price centre and it's the controller. But if we have a large group of councils all suggesting we want to go down the change from mercury halide or whatever they are and LEDs, which is probably a 40% saving in one hit. It's likely to be more effective advocacy. And similarly with trying to get a better deal out of the network providers. The Renewable Power Purchasing Agreement down in Victoria had Melbourne Council working not only in its first and second attempts with other local governments,
00:16:00 also with large business. And not only did they buy 100% renewable energy, but they actually gave the top provider of that, enough certainty to actually create additionality in the renewable energy market. So it actually drove a new wind power farm. So community education campaigns. Obviously if we're all going out, we've all got the same issue about how we help our community work towards reducing their energy costs and reducing their carbon footprint. But doing that with sharing the cost is obviously going to be more effective. While buying with community batteries. We've already got our first application. For a community battery, there's things that are going to be very big going forward. So it's likely that with economies of scale, you know, those very expensive, you know, at the moment around 500 grand for a battery will come down in price.
00:17:00 So, and lastly, we were successful in getting a motion up at LGAQ of that environmental upgrade agreements. And he's been promoted for some years. This alliance is likely to have more impact on the state government and moving, not just through their current commitment to business, but also into the residential market because of the number of councils involved and the number of voters they represent. So it's a great initiative. And it's also going to be really timely in that we have, you know, as I said, a large task going to 2026. It's going to be made easier if this alliance is effective. Thank you. Councillor Wegener: Councillor Lorentson. Councillor Lorentson: Just a question, Sally. So this is a three-year commitment that we're agreeing to. Will there be a requirement for reporting back to council? Just an update on how we're going and what are the actual benefits in terms of cost savings, etc.
00:18:00 Will that be reported back to council periodically during that three-year term? Speaker 4: Absolutely. Through the governance structure. They meet quarterly. There'll be a strategic plan made and annual reports made and communicated back to all members. I'd love to say that the goal of the alliance is certainly to provide value to members as well as build resilience and address climate risk. It's really to report definitely back those savings, whether it's emissions reduction or costs, back to council. Councillor Wegener: I'm just very excited about this. I love the de-siloing that's going on around us. Because we're faced with a climate emergency. We're faced with the Olympics coming, which are supposed to be carbon positive. We're faced with an incredible task that we've set for ourselves. And to begin with, it's a matter of communication amongst councils to get the big ideas across and to fund the big ideas. And lots of actual low-hanging fruit here. For example, community education campaign.
00:19:00 That's something to work collectively amongst other councils with. I want you to look for it. Any other? Councillor Finzel: Fabulous opportunity. I think it's really great for Moose to take the front step on this one. The idea around working together with a coordinated approach. Because we're all about collaboration, given our corporate plan. That was one of the things we talked about is de-siloing and working together. It's great to see that we can take that beyond the organisation. I love the idea that it's helping reach targets, taking a regional approach, working together, and the cost savings. What I'm particularly passionate about is the sustainable procurement and the opportunity to actually build a social enterprise and build the impact for resilience in our communities through procurement. Procurement is key. And moving forward, I think we've got a great opportunity to bring cost savings, education, and reaching targets, which I think most of our community will be really on board about.
00:20:00 People are aware how important the targets for climate change are. I love the fact that the staff has worked hard to position us in this place to be able to move forward and really make an impact and reach targets. Councillor Wegener: Thank you. Yeah, I think that all of us feel a very heartfelt congratulations for bringing this up. And thank you very much for your hard work on this. And it's a real big step forward. Speaker 4: Thank you. It's much appreciated. Thank you. Councillor Wegener: Shall we put it to a vote? All in favour? It's unanimous. Speaker 3: Thank you. Thank you. Deputy Mayor Stockwell: Thank you. Speaker 4: Thank you so much. Councillor Lorentson: That was great. Thanks so much. Deputy Mayor Stockwell: So the next time we come back, it's how many millions? Councillor Wegener: Hold on. We voted in. Second. Second. Our next is 5.3 application for region figuring of a lot, one out of two lots.
5.3 RAL22/0028 APPLICATION FOR RECONFIGURING A LOT (1 INTO 2 LOTS) AT 1 POINCIANA AVENUE, TEWANTIN ¶
00:21:00 At one point, we're going to move to Tewantin. And the CEO would like to have a few words about this one. Speaker 3: Chair. Chair, thank you. Councillors, our director for the department is unwell today and the manager is on leave. We do have staff members that can present this particular matter to committee. However, one of the staff members does hold a conflict that can be managed on this particular matter. We wanted to bring that to your attention before your consideration. We can, and we will continue to do so. And then put it to you today for some open and some general discussion for you. But we would much prefer that to ensure that the staff member did not have an ongoing conflict, that we were able to either defer full decision, or I could present that report for you. But please know, technicalities may not be a strong point of this particular matter. Deputy Mayor Stockwell: As much as I've enjoyed grilling the CIO, I think it's best in those circumstances to
00:22:00 refer it to the general committee for further consideration. Chair. Oh, yeah. Councillor Finzel: No, that's fine. Deputy Mayor Stockwell: I'll second that. Councillor Wegener: Thank you, councillors. Councillor Lorentson: All in favor? Councillor Wegener: Mr. unanimous, it's referred to the general. Thank you, councillors. Do we, we're not, we're not using our, the next is, we're not using our, our voting on the materials today. No. No. Speaker 1: No. Councillor Wegener: Thank you. Thank you, thank you, yes and I've got Mark here as backup. If there's anything we need to talk about or just introduce us to this but this is a regular very yes standard yes you do here. Oh yes are these the delegated ones?
6.1 PLANNING APPLICATIONS DECIDED BY DELEGATED AUTHORITY - MARCH 2023 ¶
00:23:00 Speaker 2: Yeah, we've been able to defer the other matter. Yes, cool. I'm sorry, so we've got the list of delegations, applications that have been Councillor Wegener: approved by delegated authority. First I'm so sorry to interrupt, is there any conflicts of interest? Do you go through these normally? No, you don't just do what's in the recovery report. Speaker 2: OK, so this is just a list of the, this report details the applications that have been considered by officers under delegation of authority. Most of these have been considered, sorry, have been, you know, considered by council, by staff due to the strict time frames of the Planning Act. Most of them relate to houses and operational works. And I'm not
00:24:00 quite sure what else you want to do during the month of March, excluding applications to seek removal of a tree adjacent to a building or structure. Do you? Councillor Wegener: No, we don't go through them. Speaker 2: You don't go through them? Sorry, yeah. We don't have any questions. Are there any questions, really? Councillor Wegener: Thank you. No questions. Amelia? Speaker 2: Sorry, I botched that. Councillor Wegener: No, you're just throwing them in the G-pad there, aren't you? Anything else? I'm talking to you guys, so we try to find a hard question to ask. Yeah, no, it's fine. Oh, sorry. I'm struggling to find a hard question. Councillor Finzel: I'm happy to do this. Councillor Wegener: Council of Finzel, I'll second it. So we put it to a vote. In favour, it's unanimous. Thank you very much. OK, sorry. No, you're welcome. Speaker 2: Thanks, Mark. Councillor Wegener: And last, we have... Confidential Note for Public Release, Kabi Kabi Table, Kabi Kabi Native Title Consent Determination.
7 CONFIDENTIAL SESSION ¶
00:25:00 And this is a confidential piece. Speaker 3: It is, it is, Council. So we would then close the meeting down to confidential. But I do understand there was a request to refer to general committee in this particular moment. So depending if there's a referral motion, that can be done in open. Councillor Wegener: Yeah, I'll do a motion to refer to the general committee in this particular moment. Speaker 3: Sorry, who's seconding? Council, Maestro. Councillor Wegener: And the reason is, this is such an important piece that I believe we all agree that all of the councillors did have the opportunity to vote on this and discuss this at the general meeting. So, should we put it to a vote? All in favour, to move it to general? And that brings us to a close at 9.57 a.m.
8 MEETING CLOSURE ¶
00:26:00 Very quick. That was very quick. Thank you very much. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Speaker 3: Thank you, Mr. Chair.