The proposed Adare motocross facility exceeds even its own maximum noise limits

The Noise Impact Assessment presented in the Development Application for the Adare motocross facility has some interesting bits in it.  Here are a few.

Background Noise

Background (ambient) noise measurements were done over a one week period in August 2014.

The table below presents three different measures of background noise, extracted from the same data set.  These represent the three main ways of measuring background noise.

The L90 measurements are similar to the values recorded for background noise at properties near the Emu Creek motocross track (before it ceased operating).  They are more or less what would be expected in a quiet rural/natural environment such as we have here in Adare/Vinegar Hill.

In such a rural/natural environment with high amenity values (and high resident expectations) for "peace and quiet" then the maximum acceptable imposed noise level should be no more than background+5dB.  This standard has been used at other locations in Queensland and in NSW.

So, taking Leq readings, the maximum acceptable noise levels for daytime operation (7am to 6pm) would be 37+5dB = 42dB.  And for evenings (6pm to 10pm) it would be 30+5dB = 35dB.  Note that background noise levels were measured in the open air, so indoor background levels would be lower and imposed noise maxima would also be lower than these figures.

Predicted Noise Levels at Houses

The table below is a key to the locations of "Receivers" (i.e. houses) for which noise levels were predicted by the acoustic model used by the consultant.  The two tables after it refer to Receivers No. 1-18, and the street addresses of these are given in the right-hand column of the table below.

Receiver Locations for Noise Predictions in Following Tables (none of the directions given are accurate - the consultant fails to understand that "due" means "exactly" in this context)

These are the predicted noise levels for daytime operation (9am to 4pm).  Note that the Applicant has chosen to adopt the criteria of 50dB for daytime operation and 35dB for evening operation. No justification is provided for this in the Application, and there has been no attempt to relate these values to measured background levels or to take into account annoyance effects of motocross noise.

Nevertheless, if we just take the Applicant's maximum noise values, the 50dB value is exceeded at two locations outdoors (whereas background+5=42 is exceeded at eight locations).  For indoors, the Applicant's criterion of 35dB is exceeded at eight locations.

The Applicant has used the same maximum noise levels for evening operation as he used for daytime (50dB outdoors and 35dB indoors).  This is completely unacceptable, considering that the evening background values he measured are 7dB(Leq) lower than daytime backgrounds.  The proposed outdoor 50dB maximum is equalled or exceeded at 11 locations, and the indoor 35dB maximum is exceeded at 14 of the 18 locations.

In summary, the Applicant is not able to meet even his own unjustifiably high maximum noise limits - and I have bee advised that these are 15-20dB(A) higher than those used by another Council.

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.

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.

Today's koala sighting

Before I talk about today's koala - quite a lot of people have asked me what a koala call sounds like.  Here's where you can find a typical koala call.  There's nothing that sounds like it, unless you happen to know a pig that rides a motorbike.

Just this morning (31 January 2015) the koala below was seen at Adare, less than 900m from the motocross track.  It was snoozing high in a Moreton Bay Ash, and was woken by the voices of the photographer and her friends, even though they were about 70 metres away.

Imagine the blast of sound it would have got from 40 motocross bikes charging around the track.  According to the Noise Impact Assessment contained in the application for the motocross facility, if this koala had been feeding at night on the ground at the base of the tree, it would have been subjected to 65dB of noise (louder than a suburban expressway at 90 metres).  Of course if it was feeding high in the tree where we found it, the noise would have been much greater because it would be in direct line of sight to the track, with nothing to attenuate the sound.

Today is the day of the State election in Queensland, when we are able to have a say in the kind of future we want. What say does this koala have about its future?  None.  Its future, and that of may other koalas in this part of the Lockyer, depends on whether you join us in speaking up on its behalf.

What about the koalas actually on the bush on the property where the motocross is proposed to operate? They will be exposed to much higher levels of noise.  How do we know they are there?  Well, the habitat is the same.  Have a look at the map below.

Today's koala was seen on private land, in the edge of Essential Habitat, beside a large area of Bushland Koala Habitat, (both mapped by the Queensland Government) and, as you can see from the above map, these habitats extend into and occupy most of the motocross property.

In fact, pretty much all of our koala sightings from across the Vinegar Hill / Adare area are in these two habitat zones.  Given that our sightings are only "incidental" sightings by people who were doing other things and not focussed on finding koalas, the density of koalas in these habitats can be expected to be many times greater than our observations suggest.

Koala populations in and around Brisbane are subjected to a range of pressures and threats from highly urbanised environments that make it unlikely that they will survive long term.  We have a koala population here that has a National Park as a "refuge" and, outside the National Park, shares bushland areas with relatively low densities of human population and very few busy roads.

If the motocross operation goes ahead, this koala population, on and outside the motocross property, is going to be subjected to stressfully high levels of noise which are likely to reduce their "fitness" for survival.  The nearest part of the Essential Habitat to the motocross track will be exposed to levels of noise between being exposed to an "in sink" garbage disposal one metre away and being in a very noisy restaurant.

Koalas have evolved on a specific diet of Eucalyptus leaves which have an extremely low energy content and are difficult to process and digest.  As a result, they have adapted their physiology and behaviour to minimise energy expenditure, e.g. sleeping up to 20 hours per day.

Since energy is required for basic living and koalas have limited resources of it, any unnecessary use of energy is likely to be of importance to their welfare.  The stress response is a very costly biological response in terms of energy metabolism.  It is possible that the triggering of stress responses may have a greater impact on koalas than other native species due to their reliance on a low energy diet.

In addition, there is circumstantial evidence that the level of chlamydiosis infections in koalas might increase as a result of noise stress impacts on their immune systems.

Please, let the Lockyer Valley Councillor and the general public know that this is an unacceptable impact on a koala population that does not have any way to speak for itself.

Not only is the presence of a large number of koalas an ongoing source of interest and pleasure to local people, it is a quality of the Lockyer Valley environment that we should be proud of and make widely known - not something to be destroyed for the sake of a motocross track.

Most recent Koala sighting

Time we started sharing our koala sightings with the community.  Residents in the Vinegar Hill / Adare area regularly see koalas on their properties and along the roadside.  Until now they have generally not recorded these incidental sightings, and in fact since most of us don't tend to look into the treetops when working outside, most koala presence would have gone unnoticed.

This is the most recent sighting I am aware of, seen mid-afternoon yesterday (29 January 2015) - 1.5km from the site of the motocross track.

It's a big male who brought attention to himself by calling from his perch high in an Ironbark.  Male koalas call any time, but mostly during the breeding season which lasts from September to January.  The call can be heard (by humans) for up to a kilometre.  I haven't found any information on how far away a female koala can hear a call.  The male's call advertises his presence (and location) to females in the area, and also contains information about his size.  If the female likes what she hears she will go looking for him.

Like all wildlife which uses calls as part of its relationship with others of its species, the koalas in Adare / Vinegar Hill will find their life cycles disrupted by motocross sounds.  This will be particularly the case if the track operates as planned from 4.00pm to 9.00pm Tuesday to Friday and "occasionally" to 9.00pm on Saturdays and Sundays.
 
Koalas are mainly nocturnal and tend to be most active around dawn and dusk. They spend around 18 to 20 hours of each day resting in order to conserve energy, due to the low-energy content of their main diet of Eucalyptus leaves. 

He won't be getting much of his daytime sleep on weekends if the motocross track is approved, and this will seriously affect his "energy budget", leading to health impacts.  These impacts will add to the stress impacts resulting from exposure to high noise levels six days per week.  It has been suggested that the stress experienced by koalas exposed to noise and disturbance leads to lowered immune system function, which in turn will exacerbate the impacts of chlamydia.  Many or most koalas in Southeast Queensland are already infected with chlamydia.

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.?

Koala records - Vinegar Hill and Adare

One of the things people realised when they started looking through the application for the motocross track at the end of Adare Road was how the "official" information on Koalas differed from their experience of Koalas on their land.

We've just received and plotted the first batches of historical records of Koalas from landowners in the area.

This is only the start, and in fact there are more records there than you can immediately see because at this scale some pins are hidden behind others.

These records are going to be entered in the official WildNET database, and will also be stored in a Google Earth database that lets us see how koala distribution coincides with landscape features such as watercourses or vegetation types.  This will allow us to make a more informed assessment of the likely Koala population on the motocross property than the applicant seems to have done.

It's not just the historical records we are looking for.  The Koala survey will be ongoing, so that as a community we can build up a good understanding of our Koala population.

Do you have any notes or photos of Koalas on your land?  We need dates and locations - if you have a photo of a koala, no matter how fuzzy or far away, the date will be in the metadata for the photo (we can help you to extract it if necessary).

If you are within about four kilometres of the motocross property we are interested in receiving your Koala records.  If you haven't already been contacted by one of the Koala team, you can get in touch with Hanneke at no.adare.mx@skymesh.com.au or leave a comment with your contact details on this blog post (all comments are moderated before showing up on the blog, so I'll make sure your contact details don't get posted publicly).