Billionaire Clive Palmer has been given the green light to build his automotive museum in the Somerset region.
Somerset Regional Council approved the development application by Mineralogy this week.
The tourist attraction is to be located at a property on West Road at Patrick Estate near Lowood.
The development approval includes a museum across 11 buildings which proposes to house about 1000 cars and 300 motorbikes, an accommodation facility including 10 two-bedroom units, car parking, caretakers residence, a shop and more.
The development will have an overall gross floor area of about 43,000 square metres.
It comes after an application for the car museum was knocked back by the Sunshine Coast Regional Council.
Somerset Mayor Jason Wendt said he was “beyond excited” to welcome this significant tourism attraction to the region.
“This is a huge tourism win for our region and the largest motor museum of its kind in Australia,” Cr Wendt said.
“The economic benefits to our region will be exponential and that’s from construction through to completion and beyond.”
The development was Impact Assessable, with only two submissions being received, one in favour and one opposed.
“The matters raised in the submissions include concerns regarding visual amenity, light pollution and noise pollutions and traffic impacts,” Cr Wendt said.
“The applicant has demonstrated that there are sufficient planning reasons for the development of the land as a tourist attraction, short term accommodation and caretaker’s residence, and that all potential impacts can be appropriately mitigated through built form and management strategies.”
Cr Wendt said the development will also have significant employment benefits for Somerset.
“We’re informed that during construction there will be about 80 construction jobs available and 64 full time equivalent employees,” he said.
“An additional 30 FTE jobs are anticipated in regional businesses directly supplying services and goods to visitors and the proposed development has also indicated opportunities for apprenticeships and on the job training which is a welcome addition for Somerset,” he said.
More details on the application can be found on Somerset Regional Council’s Minutes and Agenda webpage https://www.somerset.qld.gov.au/your-council/minutes-and-agendas .
