Saturday 19 April 2008

When is a DA not a DA

After the wealth of info that I published the other day about the emerging debacle at Paradise Palms Golf Course on the Northern Beaches, there were emails and comments asking for further explanation.

Some readers perceived this to be a simply matter of approving or not approving the Development Application before Council. Not so easy.

As there was some confusion, I thought we'd explain further.

Firstly, there has been confusion over what has been advertised for the DA. It was incorrect. You'd have to question if this was deliberate.

The original DA Advert has a typo in one Lot number. Therefore, no one could find that one. Full stop. Three other lot numbers have been newly created, as recent as April 2008.
Therefore, they do not appear anywhere in Queensland Spatial Information systems, nor in the DA itself. This fact is very concerning.

How in the world is the general public supposed to make a submission against these developments if information is incorrect or non existent?

A number of northern beaches residents have been badgering Cairns Regional Council planners to provide proper maps and clarify the situation.

Here are two maps that show exactly what lots and geographical locations in relation to the Golf Course, and what current zonings they have under the CairnsPlan 2005.

Anyone who has obtained the full Development Application from Council will no doubt be surprised to find that it bears almost no relationship to what is proposed on the published announcement.

Indeed, we initially took it back, thinking we had the wrong document. The DA is all about development of part of the golf course called Area H. The whole thing concentrates on that.

However, for those who don’t wish to spend a couple of weeks figuring out the truth, here is the short story.

Paradise Palms is essentially covered by three lots – Lot 4 on PR800876, Lot 5 on CP891005 and Lot 359 on SP105747.

Some of these lots have recently been subdivided and thus don’t appear even on recent maps. The lots are shown on the accompanying map.

The CairnsPlan planning codes for these are: Conservation (mainly Lot 5); Rural (lot 359), Residential 1 (mainly Lot 5 and Lot 359) and Sport and Recreation (mainly Lot 4).

The developer wants to change all these lots to Tourism and Residential Area code.

Simple as that.

Once that’s through, there is no more impact assessment. They will be able to build multi-story dwellings, tourist facilities, residential, whatever, just about anywhere they like.

Forget about Conservation areas, forget about Sport and Recreation. It will all be no longer. No more public comments, no more agency referrals.

If you care about the golf course and the beautiful surrounds, then act now to voice your opinion and stop this proposal.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Memo to CRC and Tom Hedley.
I think I might have the solution: Tom bought a golf course, a very good one by all accounts, and one that the golfing community and the people of Cairns would like to see retained.
If Tom no longer wants to run a golf course, preferring instead to build concrete blocks, he can sell the golf course, and use the proceeds to buy more appropriate land upon which to build them.
How simple is that.

Anonymous said...

Ah but I don't believe the intention was ever to buy Paradise Palms golf course to continue its use as a golf course, in the long term. It was more likely bought because it would be a valuable piece of land to carve up for unit/house development.
Little by little, it is being consumed. It started with the two pieces of vacant land at the entrance to Paradise Palms, the residents believed that was supposed to be "open space" but they found out it had become "Res 1" when no one was looking. And so it continues. We must stop this "reclamation by stealth".

Anonymous said...

Yo, anonymous!

Great idea, but you've missed the point.

Anyone can buy a piece of properly zoned land, at a high price, and develop it with concrete boxes. But when you buy a piece of land zoned as a golf course (which means that the price is much cheaper than properly zoned land), you stand to make a killing after you've gotten your mates on the council to rezone it to the much higher worth.

It's called screwing the public. Thanks, Tom!

Justus said...

The full DA is really confusing, but still worth a look. It’s primarily a town planning report for Area H development. It relies heavily on subconsultant studies which are referred as appendices. However, two of the appendices, including the critical Traffic study are missing!

This can only be put down to either unbelievable incompetence or deliberate deceit. If the company I worked for put out public reports with missing appendices, we would be caned.

Anyway, the report does include the revised Paradise Palms Masterplan. In fact that appendix is included twice for good measure. Nestled amongst the glossy maps is a proposed road network that residents of the Evergreen St subdivision (the low density residential area immediately north of Paradise Palms) should be very, very afraid of. If this development goes through, the plan is to direct the “tourist and residential” traffic in and out of Paradise Palms through that subdivision, via an extension of Petricola Street across the Deep Creek corridor.

At the moment, this area is really peaceful. People have acreage blocks, keep horses and general live a semi-rural lifestyle. Imagine what it will be like if it suddenly becomes a thoroughfare for the Paradise Palms “tourist precinct”.

KitchenSlut said...

Great Stuff, enjoy the detail.

More detail to come from the kitchenslut on a fave topic of how seriously bad the valuation system is and how corrupted rates are particularly for units?

Maybe thats why my divisional rep Blakey doesn't respond?

Anonymous said...

Michael, keep at this and make sure Val and the Council know. This is a scandal.

Anonymous said...

Although I have no intention of defending Tom Hedley....that was articulately performed by ex Mayor Byrne in a public forum The Cairns Post Readers Letters....there is another partner in crime at Paradise Palms and that is H&S Vison Group. They are popping up all over town and have the potential to become a Hedley, GlenCorp, CEC clone. If the Golf Course does get consumed one wonders where King Boob will play his Golf with mates from the big end of town?

Anonymous said...

If you read the DA and understand it as I do now , you will discover that the developer is NOT asking for the council to re-zone the golf course itself only the area down the current 9th fairway where they will build apartments and we now have it in writing that the 28 hole championship course will remain zoned sports/rec!!

Anonymous said...

As previously mentioned on this site the DA was advertised on the 8/4 and then again on 24/4/2008 to correct errors in the first ad. Both ads say that the Material Change of Use involves Lot 4 RP800876 (which is the whole golf course). The DA (all 500 pages) only says that parts of this lot will be changed and that the course will remain a golf course (not specifically Sporting and Recreation zoning).

Last Thursday the Vision group distributed a flyer which stated amongst other things that areas NOT in their H Area would remain Sporting and Recreation zoning.

Strange thing is that Council do not know this information or what the developer intends. Several residents have gone into Council recently and been told that the application involves changes to the whole lot as described.

So who is telling the truth here?

Why is the Dunes development of 338 units/villas located down the middle of the golf course on the 9th fairway, when it could have been located anywhere along the western perimeter along with Savanah and Kingsliff as in the original Master plan without affecting the golf couse.

Last time I did maths, 18-9 =9.

Anonymous said...

they need to make a movie about this DA starring Bryan Brown and Bill Hunter.

Anonymous said...

Jan,
Just wondering if you have anything “in writing” about the fate of the other lots located at the back of the golf course, next to the national park. These lots, including Lot 359 SP105747 and Lot 1 SP SP207017 are currently coded for Conservation, Rural 1 and Residential 1 but are scheduled in the public advertisement for Material Change of Use to be re-coded to the Tourist and Residential Planning Area code.

I too have read the entire 493 page Development Application document and can’t find a single reference to these lots.

By the way, Tourist and Residential Planning Area code has the highest density development level of any planning scheme code outside the city centre – 60 units (400 persons) per hectare.