Overcrowded estate pushes residents to parking brink

Undisclosed plans for secondary dwellings wreak havoc for residents who say they will lose $60,000 off the value of their home.

Trevor Thompson at Reo Place Yandina where narrow streets are causing big problems. Photo: John McCutcheon / Sunshine Coast Daily

YANDINA Forest residents are angered after the misuse of secondary dwellings have created unreasonable congestion in the new estate.

Developed by Goldengrove Building Group, the estate includes a large amount of structures known as secondary dwellings designed to provide a convenient solution for families wanting to live with other family members.

But former deputy mayor of the Maroochy Shire Council and Yandina resident Trevor Thompson said the dwellings were being used inappropriately and were creating all sorts of problems.

"From what I can understand there is a lot of the secondary dwellings that have been built and rented out on the open market, which is not the intent of what was in the planning scheme," he said.

"Because of the secondary dwellings this has greatly increased the number of residents, traffic flow and increased carparking to the extent that cars and trucks are parking illegally making it hard to safely and legally navigate the street."

Councillor Greg Rogerson said under the 2014 Planning Scheme anyone could apply for a secondary dwelling providing they were on an urban property of 60sq m or a rural area of 90sq m.

Cr Rogerson, who has visited the congested estate, said the scheme had good intentions but had been misused.

"When council put that in the planning scheme in 2014 it was put in there to assist people that wanted to have their elderly parent or their kids stay at home, it talks about living as a family group," he said.

"But you can't rent that out to two separate family's that are not living under the one family banner.

"Council has endeavoured to help our community but in doing so there is some people that use the genuineness that we put forward basically to make money."

Mr Thompson said the owners of the secondary dwellings purchased the property from the developer on the understanding that the dwellings could be leased separately and are now working with the council to convert the dwellings to a dual occupancy.

But the born-and-bred Sunshine Coast local said changing the definition to comply with the planning scheme wouldn't help the single dwelling homeowners who were not told about the estate plans.

"If council ticks it off, they can legally rent it out and the residents get no say," Mr Thompson said.

"The problem here is that the owners of the single dwelling houses were not made aware or informed of all these secondary dwellings and … they do not have the right to object [to the dual occupancy's] as they will be privately certified without knowledge of existing single dwelling owners," he said.

An owner of a single-dwelling home in the estate, who wished to remain anonymous, said she was never told about the inclusion of the secondary dwellings.

"None of us were told that they were putting any of those in, every plan they showed us was a single house on each block," she said.

"We thought a great estate, a great area, let's grab a block. But we didn't realise all this was going on," she said.

"We've got kids and we thought it would be a nice quite street for kids so they can ride their bikes and there is still more being built up the back so there will be more traffic."

Another resident said she had been told that they could "lose about $60,000" on the value of their house as a result of the secondary dwellings.

Mr Thompson has asked the council to introduce a yellow line like in other estates such as Peregian Springs.

"The residents submission suggested that council place a yellow line on each kerb to stop all the on-street parking thus making it safer and with easier traffic flow and better safety for children,' he said.

"But council has replied saying they would not support the submission because they wanted to ensure the on-street parking restricts vehicle speeds."

Cr Rogerson said the introduction of the yellow line won't fix the problem and "it comes down to common sense".

"To put yellow lines in would mean people will go through a lot quicker and when you've got kids in that area it's not conclusive and that's what the professionals have actually stated," he said.

"If everybody could be more considerate about the people around them, we probably wouldn't be in the situation that we are in now."

Goldengrove was contacted for comment but did not respond by deadline.