SMALL business opportunities in Beerwah may be expanded if a development is approved on the eastern outskirts.
A development application was lodged with Sunshine Coast Council to subdivide the 13ha of strawberry fields and the associated house and buildings at the corner of Roys Road and Burys Road (42 Roys Road) into 39 industrial blocks.
The zoning is for medium impact industry usage, the same as all land in that area including the estates in Moroney Place and Biondi Crescent, as well as the disputed Coles proposal site, which this development directly joins.
The land belongs to the estate of the late Dudley Crumpton and contains a considerable environmental management and conservation area, which is a recognised mapped koala habitat on the southern portion of the site along Coochin Creek.
This area is to be protected, except for a 500m2 area earmarked for clearing to allow internal road construction.
The road access in and out of the site will be via Burys Road, with all traffic then channelled onto Roys Road.
If approved and developed as an industrial park, the resulting increase in truck and vehicle traffic will add to the already constrained Roys Road/Steve Irwin Way intersection.
A statement in the submitted planning report goes against what Coles argued in its proposal to rezone industrial land to allow a shopping centre development.
Coles argued that there were sufficient industrial lands available on the coast, which the council refuted when it refused the development application.
However, this report states that there “is very little available industrial land within the Sunshine Coast and the ability to provide a variety of lot sizes to supply the current market is logical”.
The Coles development refusal is in the early stages of an appeal to the Planning and Environment Court, with the next hearing set down for February.
To read more about the 42 Roys Road subdivision, go to https://developmenti.sunshinecoast.qld.gov.au and search for RAL21/0125.