BUSTING THE SEKISUI HOUSE PUBLIC CONSULTATION
AND PUBLIC SUPPORT MYTHS

One would have to be on the generous side of gullible to swallow or believe Sekisui's claim of local support for their high-rise Yaroomba development. In their alternative reality world, befor etheir formal Development Application (DA) was submitted to the Sunshine Coast Council in May 2017, apparently 66% of people simply couldn't wait for the heavy trucks to start lumbering loudly down the David Low Way.

Well, let’s apply the blowtorch to their assertions. Right at the end of this article we are simply going to blow their claim apart.

Late in 2016... 2,297 people visited their website, 418 people visited their listening post at Mt. Coolum Shopping Centre, and 641 people sent Sekisui feedback submissions.

• The 641 submissions are hard copy evidence so we’ll start there. 66% of those 641 submissions supported the development. That equates as 423.06 people. We’ll round that figure down to 423 because the .06 was probably someone’s floppy-eared mutt dropping by in the earnest hope of a free feed.
• So, we have the grand total of 423 people who put in writing that they think Sekisui’s development proposal for Yaroomba Beach is just the bees knees. According to Sekisui “the community’s feedback has been used to further inform and refine the development proposal.” 
  
  Well bowl us all over with a feather – are they seriously saying that the DA they lodged with Council in May 2017 was informed and refined by such a small number of people? Haven’t they heard about buying clicks on Facebook – you can generate a million rusted on ‘virtual’ supporters for not too high a dollar outlay – or perhaps they are more than aware of such things?
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• As for the 418 people who visited their Mt. Coolum listening post, guess how many of them were us, the Yaroomba/Coolum us that strongly oppose Sekisui’s inappropriate development? Since we don’t easily sit under the umbrella of their PR spin we just never seem to get a friendly mention as a percentage of their figures do we?
  
  
• Of all their ‘figures’ the one we like the most is their claim that 2,297 people visited their website during this pre DA 'consultation period. We don’t at all dispute the number because websites have clicky things that measure the number of visitations. Clicky things don’t measure who did the visitation though or why the visitation was done.
  
  Their website visitation number is used to infer that 2,297 people support the development, which is hogwash, because a healthy dose of those visitations were generated by us, the opponents of the development.  With suitable anti-spin protection in place most of us who are aghast at their plans took a peek at their website, and it was like being dropped into the vortex of an episode of the Twilight Zone. We couldn’t believe what our eyes were seeing, so back we went again and again to assure ourselves that yep – flying pigs and some developers have an awful lot in common!

But enough of the well deserved fun and mayhem at Sekisui’s expense. It is time to demolish their community consultation (pre the DA) and ongoing support claim in a small number of words...  There is was and still is very strong opposition to this development by the residents of Yaroomba/Coolum. Two local community groups have their own community consultation and support figures. And please note – these figures come from just two local organisations. Groups such as SCEC, OSCAR, Coolum Ratepayers Association etc are also out there.

• Sekisui had 423 written submissions supporting their development before the DA was lodged.
• Save Yaroomba, via our survey form, had over 2,000 statements opposing the Sekisui development before the DA was lodged.
• The Development Watch petition against this inappropriate development had almost  3,000 signatories before the DA was lodged.

During the Public Notification period of the DA process (from November 2017 to January 2018), 11,692 properly made submissions were received by Sunshine Coast Council relating to the content of the DA.

• 2,795 submissions SUPPORTED the PR / Media promoted version of the content of the DA (a 220 room hotel, parks and a lake).
• 8,897 submissions OPPOSED the real content of the DA (three 7 Storey buildings and a roof top bar casting light glow and disturbing nesting endangered turtles; 1000+ residential units; 800+ vehicles per peak hour onto David Low Way; 1500+ new residents, doubling the population of Yaroomba... etc, etc, etc).
• That's 76% opposed and 24% in support Sekisui!!!

Case closed. The Sekisui myth regarding their community consultation efforts and level of community support received is well and truly busted!

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The Save Yaroomba Group (as a sub committee of Friends of Yaroomba Inc) is dedicated to the preservation of social amenity in the Yaroomba Village area. We are not opposed to appropriate development or economic growth across the Sunshine Coast region or the Yaroomba Beach precinct. We are opposed to the Sekisui Yaroomba Beach development because it does not conform to the reasonable restraints contained in the Sunshine Coast Planning Scheme 2014. The Sekisui DA will greatly affect the social environment for all residents in the Yaroomba Beach Community, and our aim is to ensure that the Sekisui Yaroomba proposal fully adheres to the height and density requirements stipulated for the Yaroomba Beach district in the Sunshine Coast Planning Scheme 2014. We welcome appropriate development to Yaroomba Beach, but we will strenuously oppose the current form of the Sekisui Yaroomba Beach proposal. If you would like to support our cause to save the Yaroomba Beach Community from this inappropriate Sekisui Yaroomba development, you are welcome to either donate via the facility on this website, or join our email list to receive updates.