Gympie council to refuse plan to turn Kybong caravan park into long-term housing

Plans to replace overnight accommodation with long-term housing at a Gympie park are expected to be shot down on the grounds a caravan park should provide overnight options.

Plans to replace a dozen overnight spots with reloctabale homes at a Kybong caravan park are expected to be refused by Gympie Regional Council.

A plan to transform a Kybong caravan park into long-term housing is expected to be refused on the grounds it would take the park even further away from its primary function.

Developer JLLT retirement asked Gympie Regional Council in September last year for permission to give the Cooloola Cabins and Caravan Park a facelift by replacing 12 overnight caravan sites with relocatable homes.

The 57-site park is already home to a number of permanent residents.

Council staff maintain that as a tourist park it should primarily provide short-term accommodation.

Replacing the sites with permanent homes would only make the development worse, a report to be tabled for councillors at next Wednesday’s meeting states.

Gympie council staff say the proposed changes to the Kybong caravan park would only make it clash with the planning scheme worse by establishing more long-term housing in an industrial area.

The fact it was already home to some permanent residents did not mean it should continue down the path of becoming home to more, the report says. Especially given its isolation from services and facilities.

Nor was this the only problem flagged.

The property is tagged as good quality agricultural land under the planning scheme.

Changing it to permanent residential living is inconsistent with the Wide Bay Burnett Regional Plan, which aims to prevent permanent residential developments from popping up in rural production areas.

Council staff say the land is expected to be reserved for “future industrial use”.

The developers had not addressed the bushfire risk at the park, either.

Gympie’s main caravan park was shut down by the council in February after it won a court case against the managers for breach of lease.