Cairns northern beaches truck stop developers take case to court
The Planning and Environment Court has given its verdict on an appeal to build a giant service station and truck stop north of Cairns.
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A PAIR of developers who took Cairns Regional Council to court after receiving a knock-back on their mega-service station proposal for a northern beaches suburb has lost the case.
Brisbane-based Daniel Holden and Matthew Southwell, the directors of Yorkeys Knob BP, took the council to the Planning and Environment Court to appeal against the refusal of their development application last August.
Marketed as a $6.8m project that would create 40 permanent jobs, it would have been the only service station with B-double parking and truck drive rest amenities operating 24 hours-a-day in Cairns.
The site at 750 Captain Cook Highway is in a rural zoned area.
It would have had 58 carparking spaces and six fuel bowsers for cars, B-double parking spaces, two coach parking spaces and three van parking spaces, along with three bowsers for trucks and other heavy vehicles.
The building would have housed two fast food outlets and a lounge for truck drivers.
Judge William Everson ruled the council’s planning scheme, which sought to preserve the rural character of the site as part of a significant interurban break, was sound.
“The proposed development will represent a significant and unacceptable encroachment into this area,” Judge Everson said.
He said it was “a comprehensive intrusion into the rural and landscape amenity of the interurban break”.
Town Planner Chris Schomburgk gave evidence on behalf of the council and said interurban breaks were vital to Cairns.
“Cairns’ growth is physically constrained by the ocean to the east and the mountain range to the west – hence, Cairns has developed in a linear form and, without appropriate interurban breaks to the north and south, would be in danger of becoming a single, linear metropolis, thereby losing the character that has evolved from a series of discreet villages (and) townships for the northern beaches,” Mr Schomburgk told the court.
Judge Everson noted Cairns had an average of one service station for every 3730 residents.
He said there were five service stations operating within the catchment, one approved service station which has not yet been developed and proposals for three more in the northern beaches corridor, at Smithfield, Trinity Beach and Clifton Beach.
Last year, the council ruled the truck stop would conflict with policy prohibiting non-rural development within the Barron River Delta flood plain and outside the specified urban area of Yorkeys Knob.
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Originally published as Cairns northern beaches truck stop developers take case to court
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