Sunshine Coast councillors have voted to refuse a proposal to develop the third stage of a housing estate, based largely around concerns about flooding.
Councillors voted 10 to one for refusing the proposed third stage of the Parklakes development on 51 hectares of rural land at Bli Bli.
Division 3’s Terry Landsberg was the only councillor to support approval of the proposal.
A report prepared by a council officer ahead of Thursday’s meeting recommended the application be refused, citing concerns around flooding, building height, open space and agricultural buffers.
The report noted that the applicants had provided a range of matters to support the application, but that “significant reasons warrant refusal of the application”.
In Thursday’s meeting Cr Maria Suarez, who represents Division 9, which includes the Bli Bli area, said she maintained her long-held opposition to development on floodplains.
“The three main reasons I’m willing to move the officer’s recommendation are the lack of detail to clearly understand the expected outcomes of the development and the expected impacts,” she said.
“The second reason is inappropriate development on a floodplain and associated loss of flood storage. And the third reason is local community feedback.”
Cr Landsberg said the council needed to do more to provide housing for residents.
“I won’t be supporting the officer’s recommendation,” he said.
“I’ve spoken before, representing Caloundra, about the huge amount of growth we see down there and always ask ‘when is north of the Maroochy River, or north of Maroochydore, going to start doing the heavy lifting?’. This is another example.
“I can understand the councillors’ position on not building on flood areas, but I’m disappointed that we haven’t done more in this area to try to work harder in relation to this application and especially around resilient homes that could be accommodated.
“We are never going to meet our targets of affordable housing and social housing and housing to support our critical workforce unless we start getting innovative and looking at ways we can work towards an outcome that actually delivers houses.”
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Mayor Rosanna Natoli also outlined her stance on the matter.
“Development in a floodplain is problematic at best,” she said.
“Am I disappointed that this process has taken this long to get to this? Absolutely. Am I disappointed that this is a missed opportunity for housing? Absolutely. You’ve heard that expressed by a number of councillors and also the officers.”
Cr Joe Natoli questioned how the council could come up with two different decisions after approving the Twin Waters West development last year, while Cr Christian Dickson asked whether a smaller proposed development on parts of the land that aren’t flood-prone had been considered during pre-lodgement meetings with the applicants.
Mayor Natoli and councillors Suarez, Natoli and Tim Burns had declarable conflicts of interest in the matter, but were each allowed to vote after other councillors unanimously voted to allow them to stay.
The applicants have been approached for comment.
