Building heights need planning and Noosa is not the place for them
There is a time and a place for building “up” and on the Sunshine Coast that is south of the Maroochy River, writes Letea Cavander.
Opinion
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Medium and high-rise buildings are impressive, especially when dwarfed by them when visiting cities, or looking up at them before job interviews, or when you make them a home.
These architectural marvels, however, have a place.
On the Sunshine Coast, that place is south of the Maroochy River where the precedent for these buildings was set long ago.
A proposal to more than double the height limits of buildings across the Noosa Shire has caused a few waves.
Deputy Premier Steven Miles released the Draft South East Queensland Regional Plan last week, which suggested Noosa could accommodate medium-rise apartments between four and eight storeys.
Parts of Noosa Junction and Noosa Business Centre are limited to three storeys and in Tewantin the height limit is two storeys – with exceptions at select sites for an extra storey for social or affordable housing.
Noosa Mayor Clare Stewart said she was particularly concerned about the expectation from the state government that Noosa would become home to “close to a staggering 10,000 people” in the next two or three years.
Further south, but still north of the Maroochy River, community groups are preparing to again appeal in the Supreme Court a controversial $900m seven-storey resort and residential development on Sekisui House-owned land in Yaroomba.
The Sunshine Coast Council approved the development in 2018 and, with the developer, has defended the decision in court since.
On the other hand, cranes dot the Maroochydore skyline as high-rise building continues in the central business district and further south.
The state government needs to house more people, in more storeys, as the south east Queensland population explodes.
If the state government ever finishes its business case, there are plans to bring a rail line from Brisbane into the Maroochydore CBD.
People who move into the Sunshine Coast must have a travel option that is not the traffic snarl of the congested Bruce Hwy.
Transport infrastructure is planned for in Maroochydore and south of Maroochydore.
An increase of people also needs an increase in police resources.
Kawana MP Jarrod Bleijie would argue at the moment Sunshine Coast police stations are not well-staffed, which the state government has firmly denied.
The state government needs to help local councils keep the medium- to high-rise growth in the places it is planned for and must start making decisions on critical transport infrastructure.
It also needs to consider police resourcing and all else that is required to support the people who will move to the buildings.
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