Height and parking relaxations are included in a proposed policy designed to encourage hotel developments on the Sunshine Coast.
The Accommodation Hotel Incentive Package is due to come before the Sunshine Coast Council’s general meeting this week for a decision by councillors.
The height relaxations would allow hotel developments to go another three to seven metres higher than would otherwise be allowed, and also provide a rooftop allowance of three to five metres.
The incentives would apply to sites in parts of Cotton Tree, Maroochydore, Alexandra Headland, Mooloolaba, Caloundra and Beerwah.
The proposed hotel incentives would also release developers from the providing the minimum number of car parking spaces they would otherwise be required to under the planning scheme.
A report prepared for Thursday’s meeting recommends the council adopt the package in recognition of the “urgent need” for accommodation hotels and the “challenges” that confront this type of development.
The report suggests stimulation of hotel development is needed to meet a future shortfall in hotel rooms relating to the 2032 Olympics.
“Recent investigations into the Sunshine Coast hotel market (10-year outlook) estimates a need for 2150 new hotel rooms and 300 boutique hotel rooms to meet the current shortfall in serviced visitor accommodation and forecast demand from the overnight visitor market in the lead-up to the Brisbane 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games,” it says.
It says the Sunshine Coast would need 1155 new hotel rooms, the equivalent of six or seven hotels, to accommodate just 5 per cent of the Olympic community, but there would also be pre- and post-Olympics demand.
According to snapshot of visitor accommodation in the report, there are currently 3590 rooms available for tourists on the Coast, of which 946 are in hotels, 62 in boutique hotels, 236 in motels and 2345 in serviced apartments.
Seventy per cent of the accommodation is self-catering, 52 per cent two- or three-star standard, 34 per cent four-star and 1 per cent five-star.
The report says the supply of serviced apartments is “adequate” but these do not appeal to business travellers or short-stay leisure guests.
It says the investigation revealed an “urgent need for more full-service internationally branded, operated and managed” hotels ranging from three-and-a-half to four-and-a-half stars.
Such hotels would satisfy current demand and attract new markets; boost employment and the economy; increase the region’s competitiveness as a business, conference and events destination; and support other major regional projects such as the Sunshine Coast Airport, the Sunshine Coast University Hospital and the Olympics and Paralympics, it says.
The report singles out “elevated construction costs” as a problem weighing on investment decisions and says it is “considered appropriate” that the council moderate such challenges to support this type of tourism infrastructure.
It also says current planning scheme car parking provision rates for some hotels are considered “a significant impediment to this form of development” and not reflective of the actual demand parking at most hotels”, and that setting a minimum more in keeping with demand would mitigate a “major current impediment” to hotel developments.
Besides height relaxations and minimum parking exemptions, the proposed hotel development incentives include a personalised pre-lodgement service, provision of a dedicated assessment team and a waiver of development fees for qualifying development applications until September 2026, backdated to July 1 this year.
Also on offer for eligible hotel developments is a waiver of the application fee, and a 50 per cent rental discount, for temporary work or interfering with roads or verges during development; a 50 per cent discount on infrastructure charges for eligible hotel developments that start before June 2028, and a deferral of infrastructure charges for up to five years.
The report says the proposed incentives have been discussed with industry experts but have not been put to community consultation as there was no requirement under legislation.
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