SIRROMET Winery wants to boost its major restaurant, entertainment and restaurant business by building 56 “glamping’’ tents to add wedding and tourist accommodation.
An application before Redland City Council says the move is to allow for people attending winery concerts and weddings to be able to stay onsite, thereby improving road safety.
But it has sparked opposition, with residents saying noise and clogged roads are already a problem and will only get worse with a move to accommodation.
A report to council for owner Terry Morris says the glamping accommodation is primarily intended to support the winery by offering options for weddings, functions and music events.
The proposal has been designed to avoid existing trees and minimise disturbance on the 216ha property. It will include 10 parking areas, landscaping, pathways, wedding ceremony and winery facilities and water, electricity and sewerage connections.
It says the development will generate little additional traffic because most patrons would be at the facility anyway.
“Moreover, the ability for patrons to remain on site following the completion of a wedding or other function was found to provide road safety benefits that far outweigh the traffic impact,’’ it says.
A council spokesman said a decision was expected to be taken on the project on March 31.
In a submission to council, the Foran family said neither Woodlands Drive nor Mt Cotton Road were built to take such high volumes of traffic as was occurring. When shows concluded at Sirromet, roads became clogged.
“Just think about what kind of people will be staying in the tents and running around the property at all hours of the night,’’ they said.
The application gave no detail about when trees would be removed or replaced and water would become a major issue when such a large number of people were accommodated.
Resident Jayne Roffey said the development would be detrimental to wildlife. Eprapah Creek was already unhealthy and campers would impact heavily on the area.
A series of events like Tough Mudder, fireworks, Day on the Green and sleep-overs were already a problem.
“At times we cannot get out of our driveways due to the line-up of cars going to and from events,’’ she said.
Sirromet general manager Rod Hill said the project should not generate too much extra traffic as it was mainly to service existing customers.
“We do large weddings here throughout the year so it’d be good to allow customers to stay onsite … and build corporate business,’’ he said.
Mr Hill said international tourism was growing, particularly with Chinese and Japanese tourists and it would be a bonus to offer them a place to stay.
Eprapah Creek would be protected and koala food trees planted. The plan was to build about 18 tents in the first stage and then take a decision later on further expansion.
Ms Roffey said the site was originally developed as a winery, then restaurant, cafe, golf course and major events were added.
The state government has already told Mr Morris that incremental growth at Sirromet since the original development was approved by council in 1999 and the “Supagolf’’ proposal in 2013 that further development will need roadworks to improve access safety.