Noosa Council blindsided by developer’s ‘unusual’ tactic
An 11th hour move to “stop the clock” on the approval process for a $130 million retirement resort and golf club redevelopment was a first for senior council advisers.
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Surprised senior Noosa Council advisers say an 11th hour move by GemLife to “stop the clock” on the approval process for its $130 million Cooroy retirement resort and golf club redevelopment was a first for them.
Councillors on Thursday held a special meeting to vote on a staff recommendation to reject the application over concerns the Myall St proposal did comply with the Noosa town plan.
Council develop assessment manager Kerri Coyle said state planning laws have only provided for a time-out provision since 2017.
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Ms Coyle said the planning act allowed for the approval process to be stopped for up to an accumulative period of 130 days.
She said the mechanism could be stopped and restarted by the GemLife as many times as it liked.
GemLife has requested to halt the process on its application until March 18.
“I’ve never seen that before,” Ms Coyle said.
“I find it quite highly unusual that they’ve taken this approach in order to try and defer the matter until a further meeting.
“It does mean that the council cannot decide the application today because the decision period is stopped.”
Council CEO Brett de Chastel said he also had never seen an application, once it was on a council agenda for a final decision, delayed by the developer.
Ms Coyle said the intent of the stoppage was to give GemLife more time to respond to any information quests from the council.
She said GemLife’s submission to the council claimed the council refusal report omitted information.
But she said GemLife had not cited examples.
“If the applicant provides us details of it, we’ll have a look,” she said.
“At this stage I think the report’s very thorough, but we’ve got further time to take a look at it.”
Councillor Joe Jurisevic said GemLife was undertaking due process and had the right under the planning laws to stop the application.
His deferral motion was passed unanimously.
Originally published as Noosa Council blindsided by developer’s ‘unusual’ tactic
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