Why we need a new Planning Scheme

View from Hallorans Hill Atherton

View from Hallorans Hill Atherton

A new Planning Scheme is needed to create a consistent standard across the newly amalgamated local government area of the Tablelands Regional Council.

We currently operate under four separate planning schemes from the former local government authorities of Mareeba, Atherton, Eacham and Herberton Shires. Each of these schemes provide different guidelines, standards and mechanisms for managing development. The process of developing a new planning scheme will involve a major overhaul of these four separate systems.

The result will be a consistent standard for development throughout the Tablelands.

The process will provide the community, Council and related state agencies with an opportunity to reassess the way we have planned in the past and how we want to plan in the future.

The Integrated Planning Act (1997) has been repealed and will soon be replaced by the Sustainable Planning Act (2009), which was passed by Parliament on 16 September 2009 and will come into effect sometime in December 2009. The new legislation introduces new provisions for the development of planning schemes in Queensland, including the Queensland Planning Provisions, which is a standard suite of zones, overlays, levels of assessment and definitions. The new planning scheme will be developed within this template.

Council must bring the planning schemes into line with the Queensland government’s Far North Queensland Regional Plan 2031 (FNQ2031), gazetted in February 2009. Our new planning scheme will reflect the Regional land use categories and the Land use policies of the new Regional Plan.

Regardless of amalgamation, the Atherton, Herberton and Mareeba planning schemes are due for review within the next few years. This process will now become part of the development of our new planning scheme.

Priority Infrastructure Plans (PIPs) are being undertaken for the former shires, which will be incorporated into the new planning scheme. Priority Infrastructure Plans ensure that trunk infrastructure is planned and delivered at an affordable cost to support growth. The PIPs are the first major step towards developing transparent and informed infrastructure charges, to be levied against development across the Tablelands region.