A building company has withdrawn from its battle against a local council to develop a solution to the housing crisis.
Eco Cottages has issued a notice of discontinuance with the Planning and Environment Court less than a year after first lodging an appeal.
The notice comes after the passing of the company’s director and development visionary Greg Phipps late last year.
In March 2022 the Cooroy-based modular builder lodged a development application with Noosa Council to build 32 eco-dwellings at 55 Carpenters Road, Cooroy.
During a public notification period 333 submissions were made, which included support from organisations such as the St Vincent de Paul Society, Coast2Bay and Noosa District State High School.
The council ultimately rejected the proposal, citing conflicts with the Noosa Plan 2020 and Noosa Housing Strategy 2022.
At the time Mr Phipps told Sunshine Coast News he would “not give up” on his “moral responsibility” as a builder to help those in vulnerable living circumstances.
Determined to fight the decision, an appeal was lodged with the court on September 21, 2023, with Noosa Council as the respondent.
The appeal was initially due to be reviewed on January 25, however several draft orders were submitted to the court, pushing the date to July 19.
Eco Cottages’ lawyers, P&E Law, filed the discontinuance notice on July 18.
It stated the appellant (Eco Cottages) “discontinues the whole of the proceedings against the Respondent”.
Eco Cottages was contacted for comment.
Last month Noosa councillors approved a remediation process to prepare a 3000sqm lot at Cooroy to be sold to not-for-profit Coast2Bay Housing.
The parcel of council-owned land at 62 Lake Macdonald Drive was once used for night soil, landfill and bottle disposals.
The aerial imagery in this story is from Australian location intelligence company Nearmap. The company provides government organisations, architectural, construction and engineering firms, and other companies, with easy, instant access to high-resolution aerial imagery, city-scale 3D content, artificial intelligence data sets, and geospatial tools to assist with urban planning, monitoring and development projects in Australia, New Zealand and North America.
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