Parklands Blue Metal was previously successful in court in May last year when it appealed the Sunshine Coast Regional Council’s October 2011 decision to refuse its Yandina Creek Road quarry development application, which was first lodged in June 2009.
Parklands Blue Metal proposed to develop a 98ha site in Yandina containing between 17 million to 20 million tonnes of reserves into a quarry with a 40-year life. The quarry would have an output of 350,000 tonnes per annum (tpa) with a maximum output limit of 500,000 tpa and employ 10 permanent staff members.
Despite strong community opposition – 4979 submissions were said to have been made against the proposal – the Planning and Environment Court (PEC) of Queensland ruled that Parklands Blue Metal had sufficiently justified the future need for the quarry.
The council subsequently made its own appeal, contending to the Supreme Court of Queensland that the PEC judge had erred in granting the quarry application based on the construction and application of the relevant planning instruments documents and the assessment of quarry’s amenity impacts. Among the concerns raised were the potential impact of blasting on two residencies within 250m of the site, and aviation safety with regards to the Sunshine Coast Airport located 13km from the quarry.
The council’s appeal was unsuccessful. Three Supreme Court judges backed the PEC’s original decision that there was a future need for the quarry, that it would provide some benefit to the community without conflicting with the town’s planning scheme, and that there were no “unacceptable detrimental amenity impacts”.
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