Plans to expand and “reinvigorate” a long-standing caravan park have been submitted to Sunshine Coast Council.
The proposal for the Sunseeker Village caravan park on Caloundra Road at Little Mountain seeks to convert it to a relocatable home park with 136 sites, up from the current 71.
Thirty-one of the existing sites would be retained while 40 would be converted to permanent accommodation, with 65 additional permanent sites to be added.
The southern part of the 4.4-hectare site – which is understood to have been established as a caravan park in the 1980s – would be developed to allow for the additional dwellings.
A planning assessment report by Zone Planning Group on behalf of applicant Avari No 22 Pty Ltd says the proposal would provide an injection of affordable housing options for the area.
“Sunseeker Village operates as affordable housing and contains a mix of permanent cabins and caravan sites that have been converted for permanent habitation, with only a small number of sites currently being vacant,” it states.
“The proposal, being a compact relocatable housing product, aims to provide an affordable housing option to combat the growing housing demand pressures for the area. The small-scale and compact dwelling types, as well as flexibility in terms of ownership and tenure, provide a far more affordable housing type to the market.
“While the proposal includes replacing some of the existing dwelling sites, these are generally those in poor condition which are not safety retained. This allows a gentle reinvigoration of the existing areas, while also ensuring consistent and complementary expansion to the south.”
The relocatable home sites range would from a minimum of 95sqm to more than 250sqm.
A total of 136 resident car parking spaces and 41 visitor spaces are proposed.
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The proposal includes upgrading existing communal facilities, along with creating a new recreation space at the rear of the site. In total, 4839sqm would be dedicated to shared amenities including a pool, recreation hall, pathways and seating.
The report acknowledges that 20 per cent of the site is required to be used for communal open space, which on the 4.33-hectare site would exceed 8600sqm, but argues this would be “unreasonable and unfeasible”.
It also notes that a relocatable home park land use is not consistent with the site’s Community Facility zoning, meaning the material change of use proposal is subject to public notification through the impact assessment process.
“The site is located within a predominately residential area and is not within close proximity to typical tourist attractions such as beaches or shopping/dining precincts. We therefore conclude that the site is better suited to an affordable housing outcome given that it does possess the attributes typical sought by visitors to the region,” the report says.
The caravan park was put on the market in 2024 after being owned by the same family for 40 years.
