Cooroy locals slam council plan to develop vacant block into social housing

Residents of hinterland town in Noosa have claimed the council’s plan to allow a large social housing development is putting the “cart before the horse” as the town continues to lack key infrastructure.

The site of a housing development planned for Cooroy.

The Noosa Council’s plan to transform a vacant Cooroy block into social and affordable housing has been met with opposition from locals who say the town does not currently have the infrastructure to cope.

The Noosa Council announced last week the property at 62 Lake Macdonald Drive, Cooroy, had been approved to begin a remediation process to prepare the land for a housing development.

The first 3000sq m lot on the property is set to be sold to not-for-profit company Coast2Bay Housing.

Noosa acting mayor, Brian Stockwell, said the project would deliver much-needed new low-cost housing stock to the region.

“Coast2Bay is an established and respected not-for-profit provider of affordable and social housing with access to state and federal funding to support delivery of new housing stock,” Mr Stockwell said.

“We signed an MoU with Coast2Bay in 2022. They are a key member of our Housing Stakeholder Reference Group, and we enjoy a strong working relationship with their team which has helped pave the way for the delivery of this exciting project.”

Environment and strategy director Kim Rawlings said the property, which previously operated as a landfill and bottle disposal site, would be decontaminated prior to construction.

Cooroy locals are concerned about a social housing development that could soon be built on a contaminated site.

However, local Paul Noonan said the current infrastructure in the hinterland town would not be able to cope with a large influx of residents.

“The council have told us there could be 159 dwellings built there, those could each be two-bedrooms and it is reasonable to assume they would all have two cars per house,” Mr Noonan said.

“Cooroy isn’t really coping the way it is, there is a famously bad intersection that has been a problem for 20 years and there is still no solution, it is already hard to park in the town.”

Mr Noonan said he did not believe the council had communicated the plans for site adequately with local residents, with more than 400 people signing a petition against the development, which was started last week.

“Everybody deserves somewhere to live but it needs to be appropriate and fit for purpose,” Mr Noonan said.

Mr Noonan also raised concerns over asbestos contamination on the site.