The Bella Creek Motorsports Facility is not going to happen!!

This news came in around the middle of March but I forgot to report it. The proposed development, in the Gympie Regional Council area, would have included five motocross tracks, as well as four-wheel-drive tracks, camping, etc.

The Bella Residents Action Group made the announcement on their Facebook page.

Well...for all of you who have been waiting with bated breath and are not on a mailing list - we are now well past the period within which an appeal against the refusal of Mr Canty's DA had to have been lodged. 

A conversation with Council has confirmed that there has been NO such lodgement. The 2nd application for the Bella Creek motorsports facility is now as dead as the first. After 4 1/2 years we can finally take a deep breath and exhale. 

Thank you to all who have been following and offering support in our battle to prevent this misplaced idea from becoming a reality, you have been wonderful. After such a long time it seems hard to believe that this may finally be behind us; in light of the proponents past ability to offer up unpleasant surprises, we remain somewhat wary. We are nonetheless looking forward to drinking that champagne we've been storing. Raise a toast wherever you are and give yourselves a pat on the back, you deserve it!

The Gympie Regional Council's Planning and Development Section report on the application can be found here.  It has a number of interesting things to say, many of which are relevant to the proposal for a motocross operation at Adare in the Lockyer Valley.

Noise and Amenity

... there remains considerable doubt that the proposed development can operate without causing significant adverse noise impacts given the scale of the proposed development.
 
The development is proposed in a quiet rural area that is removed from the urban area. The application has not adequately demonstrated that noise from the development will not cause a nuisance to the immediate area. Further, it is likely that the traffic that could be generated is estimated to significantly increase when compared to the current low volumes of traffic in the locality, which will also cause adverse impacts upon the amenity and character of the area.

The locality is characterised by rural, rural residential and education uses and has a high level of amenity. Consequently, the development is likely to cause significant adverse changes to the acoustic environment of adjoining and surrounding premises and significantly impact upon the existing amenity of the locality.
 
The application was subject to a large number of objections [205] who have raised valid concerns about the proposal’s impact on the amenity of the area. ...

Concerns relate to character of the area being threatened, intrusion in lifestyle for a rural community, loss of privacy, unlawful entry onto neighbouring properties and inconsistencies with rural and rural residential land use in the area. ...

The concerns raised in the submissions are outlined in the report the majority of which raise valid planning issues. The number of and quality of the submissions, demonstrate that the development is contrary to community expectations and is not in the public interest.

Impact on Koala Population

In relation to the koala population on the Applicant's land that would be subjected to adverse impacts from the proposed activity, the Council Planning report says:

Implementation of these [proposed] measures could be conditioned on any approval. However, the protection of the environmental values on the site cannot be guaranteed in regards to maximising protection of Koala Habitat Areas and having no adverse environmental impacts.

Community Benefit and the Need for the Development

Referring to the questions of community benefit and need for the development the report says:

It is accepted that the proposed development will have some community benefit. However, the applicant has not provided any justification that there is a need for the facility, in particular at this location.

 and

The applicant has not provided supporting information from an economic expert about the level of economic need for this type of facility. However, it is accepted that there is some community benefit in providing for this type of facility. However, the planning need for the facility at this location has not been demonstrated.
 

Number of Submissions

One of the grounds on which the Gypmie Councillors refused the application was that:
 
Having regard to the number of objections and concerns expressed in the submissions received, the proposed development is contrary to community expectations and is not in the public interest.

As mentioned above, the Bella Creek proposal gave rise to 205 objecting submissions of which 57% were from the Gympie Regional Council area.  The Adare proposal has given rise to 232 objecting submissions 95% of which came from the Lockyer Valley Region.

In addition to the 205 objecting submissions, the Gympie Regional Council received 582 submissions in support of the Bella Creek proposal (85% of them from outside the Council area).  The Adare motocross proposal elicited only two (2) supporting submissions.

Gympie Regional Council's Conclusion

Having regard to the planning scheme as a whole and the level of conflict identified, there are not sufficient grounds to allow the development despite the conflict. Consequently, the development application should be refused.

Does the total number of objecting submissions matter?

There were 232 objecting submissions to the Development Application for the motocross facility at Adare.  I doubt that any planning application in the Lockyer Valley Regional Council area has given rise to as many objections.

I've lost count of the number of people who have asked me questions along the lines of: "Why is it taking the Council so long to deal with this application if there were 232 objections?".

I can understand the the Planning Department is making sure that they do a thorough job of assessing all relevant aspects of the application and the submissions received, and I would not want them to do anything else.  Good governance is in all our interests.

Does the total number of objecting submissions matter?

In its reasons for refusing the Bella Creek Multi Sports Park (i.e. motocross and 4-WD) development application the Gympie Regional Council included the following:

Having regard to the number of objections and concerns expressed in the objections, Council considers that the proposal is contrary to community expectations and not in the public interest.

In case you are wondering, there were 179 objecting submissions to that application.  (The proponent later made a revised development application which was again refused.)

One of the other reasons given for the refusal that is relevant to the Adare motocross proposal was that:

The development will result in an unacceptable impact on rural character and amenity of the area.

Clearly an issue for anyone who lives in or has visited the Adare/Vinegar Hill area.

The property below is less than one kilometre* from the proposed motocross property and was photographed from a neighbouring property - pretty much fits the description of rural amenity in the quote from the Strategic Framework for the new LVRC Planning Scheme (which may be released for public comment at the end of April).

* I use distances from the edge of the proposed motocross property rather than from the Stage 1 track because the proponent has not given any indication of where the four additional Stage 2 tracks will be built.  It seems likely due to considerations of vegetation, slope and conservation values that they will be in the area closest to surrounding properties.

Motocross traffic on Adare Road - we stand to lose more than you think

I've posted before about the unsuitability of Adare Road for large amounts of traffic.

There's more to that issue and I'll come back to it in another post.

There are unsuspected losses associated with traffic on Adare Road that we face if the proposed motocross development is allowed to go ahead.

One of these relates to the Gatton Light Horse Troop.  You might be familiar with their role in the Anzac Day celebrations in Gatton and other localities in the Lockyer Valley.

The Gatton Light Horse Troop in the Anzac Day parade in 2012.  A friend in Germany sent this to me, which shows how far the knowledge of our Light Horse Troop has spread.

What you wouldn't know, unless you are out toward the end of Adare Road early on a Saturday or Sunday, is that the Horse Paddock beside Adare Road,on the right just before the Redbank Creek Crossing, is one of their training grounds.

It's a stirring sight to see them practising mounted military manoeuvres at full speed.

If there are up to 150 vehicles travelling down Adare Road on a Saturday or Sunday morning, the Horse Paddock will become unsuitable for Light Horse training exercises.

There's another group in the community (this time a much wider community) who know of the Adare Road Horse Paddock.  They are the birdwatchers, and the trees and bushes around the edges of the Horse Paddock are one of several regular birding spots for many visitors.

Adare road has been visited with increasing regularity by local, Brisbane, interstate and overseas birders over the last 20 years.  The location features regularly in online lists of the interesting or rare species which have been seen there.

Two of the visitors in this group were from Japan

It continues to be something of a 'hot-spot' where visitors can find a selection of scarcer species which can be difficult to locate elsewhere in the region.

There are many birdwatchers who visit Adare Road regularly, some every couple of months, some every week.  There are also bird clubs which make annual trips to the area.

A lot of the most interesting birding is done along the road verges, including along the sides of the Redbank Creek crossing.  Motocross traffic in the mornings and evenings (when most birders visit) is going to turn birdwatching along Adare Road into an extreme sport - not to mention being extremely unpleasant with all the dust and noise.  It can be pretty confidently predicted that the beginning of motocross traffic will be the beginning of the end of birdwatching on Adare Road.

MX tracks and their poor relationships with neighbours and local government

The quote below is from the introduction to a review of the relationships between motocross tracks and their neighbours and local government agencies which includes reviews of the histories of eight existing or proposed motocross tracks in America.

At the Oct 21 Conditional Use Hearing regarding the Thomas Conditional Use proposal for motocross/camping in rural Clackamas County, testimony was given in support of the proposal based on claims that motocross was “family friendly”. A man stated that Washougal MX had expensive homes in the vicinity of the MX tracks and that local residents and the commercial MX business had happy relationships.

Extensive research into the functioning and relationships multiple MX facilities, whether permitted or unpermitted, have with their neighbors and with their County planning departments proves conclusively that it is totally false to claim motocross events can happily co-exist with residential areas.

Every case I researched, including Washougal MX, proved that  residents within earshot of MX tracks are miserable and that they consider motocross a serious nuisance which steals their quality of life and degrades and pollutes land. Counties have extra work loads to enforce MX code infractions and have ongoing struggles related to traffic, crowd control, noise, and regulating environmental damage. Local police and emergency services are impacted as well.

Family-oriented
 Any claims that the proposed Adare motocross track will be family oriented don't take into account the impacts on families among the 900+ people living in the vicinity of the track.

Emergency Services
It's worth noting the mention of impacts on police and emergency services as well.  That has also been the experience with the Black Duck Valley and the Wyaralong tracks in Southeast Queensland.

Noise as an Amenity Impact
There's a nice quote from a county examiner (sort of like our LVRC Assessment Manager) in relation to noise [LVRC please note]:

pg. 24 item h. iii: “Even when the noise does not drown out conversation or disturb people sleeping or exceed 57 dbA, it increases the noise levels frequently enough and in amounts and for a duration that is enough to detract from the character of the area as rural residential. The examiner finds that such an impact is significantly detrimental to people nearest the site.”

Noise issues are NOT just about loudness as measured in decibels!  They are about loss of rural/natural amenity, and about stress and anxiety caused by ongoing, long-term exposure to noise which is not part of the local environment.

Loudness Requirements Can Stop Motocross
But, in terms of loudness of MX noise, the article quotes a complaint that: … imposed sound limitations that are so restrictive they effectively deny the permit application.”

As if the fact that MX operations can't comply with mandated noise limits is somehow the fault of the legislators, or is a direct attack on MX as a business, instead of being a standard of what is reasonable noise in a particular environment.

Emu Creek track in the Tenterfield Council area is one example.  After a lot of time, court cases and expense the Tenterfield Council imposed noise and operating time limits on the motocross activities at Emu Creek, which they claim they could not meet from a business point of view.  They are still in business and seem to have moved to mountain bike and Bicycle MX activities to replace the motocross element of their custom.

It's also worth noting that in the case of the Emu Creek motocross, Tenterfield Council monitored maximum noise levels [L(A)max], rather than averaged noise levels over a (usually long) period [L(A)eq], because they said it was more objective when long-term, long period noise was considered.  The Adare proponent's Noise Study uses averaged noise levels, which always appear more favourable to the proponent's case.

Costs to Council for Ongoing Compliance Action
The case studies refer to costs to all parties for the application (including appeals) procedures and for ongoing compliance.  In our own area, the Emu Creek case mentioned above is said to have cost the Tenterfield Council in excess of $66,000 for compliance monitoring and court costs before it stopped the noise nuisance.

The nature and peace of the Vinegar Hill / Adare area are known around the world

It's easy to overlook the fact that a lot of tourists, particularly backpackers, spend quite a bit of time in the Lockyer Valley.  Not all of them are totally focussed on earning money from farm work.  Many combine income-earning activities with enjoyment of the wonders of our natural environment.

Here's a comment from the petition asking LVRC Councillors not to support the motocross proposal at Adare:

Alex Fletcher JöNKöPING, SWEDEN

Having previously spent some time just a stone's throw away from the proposed planning site, it's impossible to imagine a cacophony of engines disturbing the formerly uninterrupted peace and tranquillity of the Lockyer valley. The local lifestyle is a rural one, designed to be spent as one with the natural surroundings with absolutely minimal disturbance. The influx of motorcycles and the noise they will bring is an obvious issue, but equally pressing are the crowds this facility will entice.

The road infrastructure within the Lockyer is certainly not designed to withstand the expected level of traffic without significant work, to the detriment of the natural environment. 

The proposals are a poignant reminder that the world is getting smaller, and that the value of land is diminishing in the wake of personal interest and gains. As a student of natural and environmental science this petition is close to my heart, and I fully support the local area, and the eradication of any proposals for a motocross complex within it.

Do we really want our area to have a reputation based mainly on motor sports like motocross, speedway, street sprints, etc.?