Planning Act 2016 impacts on Council
Council has amended its local planning scheme Brisbane City Plan 2014 (City Plan) to align with the new Queensland Government legislation Planning Act 2016 (Planning Act), which came into effect on 3 July 2017.
Changes to City Plan
Council continues to focus on well-planned development through the consultative neighbourhood planning approach guided by Brisbane’s CityShape strategic framework.
There has been no changes to Council’s vision for positive on-the-ground development outcomes and residents can access detailed reasoning behind development approvals through Council’s transparent online system PD Online.
| Terminology changes across City Plan | As these have occurred throughout the scheme they may give the appearance of greater change. |
|---|---|
| Tables of assessment | In general, the levels of assessment and the assessment criteria have not changed. The loss of compliance assessment is the exception but this does not have a significant impact and can be readily addressed though code assessment or condition compliance. |
| Zone codes | No change in policy intent. Clarity has been maintained while complying with new drafting rules. |
| Development codes | Codes include relevant policy context from the Strategic Framework where necessary to maintain consistency in their application and in the development outcomes. |
| Definitions | New definitions have been accommodated without changing planning intent for those uses. |
Changes to development assessment
Council has updated its development assessment systems, processes and people in line with the new legislation and to communicate changes with its key development industry customers.
Changes the development industry will notice include:
- Alignment of terminology, definitions and zone purposes across City Plan to align with the new Planning Act. (These changes do not change the intent of City Plan.)
- New process and assessment timeframes in Development Services that align with Planning Act statutory requirements.
- Employment of the new features of Planning Act and associated regulations, such as:
- Exemption Certificates where appropriate and consistent with community expectations and while maintaining planning transparency and certainty
- Section 82 approvals for changes, other than minor changes, to a development application.
Key terms changed with new legislation
| Current term | Replaced by |
|---|---|
| the Sustainable Planning Act 2009/SPA | the Planning Act 2016 |
| the Sustainable Planning Regulation 2009 | the Planning Regulation 2017 |
| Priority infrastructure plan/PIP | Local Government Infrastructure Plan/LGIP |
| assessment criteria | assessment benchmarks |
| levels of assessment | categories of development and assessment OR categories of assessment (when only referring to code or impact assessment) OR categories of development (where referring to whether prohibited, assessable or accepted development) |
| exempt development | accepted development |
| self-assessable development | accepted development, subject to compliance with identified requirements |
| self-assessable acceptable outcomes | all identified acceptable outcomes |
For more information about Queensland Government planning reform and the new state planning legislation visit the Queensland Government Planning Reform.