A Minute With The Mayor Ry Collins

At last week’s monthly Council meeting in Proserpine two significant motions were adopted that highlight that my Council is proactively addressing the current housing pressures in the Whitsunday region.

The first was the adoption of the new Local Housing Action Plan (LHAP) which was developed by Council in partnership with the Local Government Association of Queensland with funding from the Queensland Government.

The LHAP outlines 28 practical and tangible actions that will assist Council to address housing barriers and shortfalls.

The plan is not intended to be a static document but will remain live and be monitored and reviewed as we develop our actions.

We want to work with the State and Federal Governments, the housing sector, and our residents to increase the number of homes available and make sure that we are getting our fair share of the investments being made in this space.

Obviously, the housing crisis is not something that is going to be solved overnight and in many ways the role that we can play at the lowest tier of government is very limited.

However, advocacy is something I can do and with the upcoming State and Federal elections there will be real commitments from both tiers of government to invest in housing and it is my job to make sure that the Whitsunday region is part of that conversation.

Key to the delivery of housing supply is ensuring we can get ahead of the important service infrastructure that is required to support our demand and as a regional Council we can’t achieve that without State and Federal support.

The second decision Council adopted was to make an amendment to the Planning Scheme in relation to the appropriateness of short-term accommodation in our dormitory suburbs, specifically within the Low-Density Zoned localities.

The primary intent is to restrict Short Term accommodation dwellings in our low-density zoned areas while identifying specific exceptions for traditional tourist beach areas recognising their unique role in attracting visitors and supporting our local economy.

The aim is to protect the residential amenity of our residents and to provide investors with a clear indication of where short-term accommodations dwellings are accepted uses.

Once we have undertaken our State Government review of the proposed changes, the community will have the opportunity to comment, and we will be engaging more directly with the inclusion locations where we have considered it is appropriate for Short Term accommodation to occur.

Our Whitsundays is a fast-growing region and Council is playing its role by bringing all levels of government together with the housing sector, developers, and investors to secure local outcomes.

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