BREAKING - COMMUNITY WINS! Court of Appeal judgment delivered on 9th Feb 2022 found in favour of Development Watch Inc in its appeal against the decision of the Planning & Environment Court in June 2020 which upheld Sunshine Coast Council’s contentious approval of Sekisui’s development application.
Japanese developer, Sekisui House Australia Pty Ltd is seeking to develop an intensive, high-density development on the beautiful 19 hectare beachside parcel at Yaroomba. The development proposes over 750 residential dwellings, hotel and serviced apartments in three, seven story (23.5m+) high-rise buildings plus retail.
A development of such bulk and scale was never contemplated by the planning scheme nor the community given the site's significant environmental, scenic and cultural values.
This stretch of beautiful coastline is a dark and quiet beach making it an important nesting area for critically endangered loggerhead turtles. The impacts from this massive development would put their viability at serious risk due to the threats imposed by the lights and increased human activity. Any light confuses emerging hatchlings navigation to the ocean making their survival all the more tenuous.
Sekisui has also insensitively appropriated the name Yaroomba Beach for commercial exploitation. The name "Yaroomba Beach" came from Jinibara Elder, Willie McKenzie, when he visited the area around 1960 with the Place Names Board, making this area a historically significant Aboriginal place, together with the other significant Kabi Kabi cultural heritage features.
Reference Mr Kerry Jones Kabi Kabi Traditional Owner
Here's the development application