2016-08-09 Planning & Environment Committee Agenda

PLANNING & ENVIRONMENT COMMITTEE MEETING AGENDA                                        9 AUGUST 2016


                                                                                       Attachment 1

Submitting council / organisation
Noosa Shire Council

Date of council / organisation resolution                   LGAQ Policy Executive district
18 August 2016                                              District 2 – South East Queensland North


Number and title of motion      - Planning Powers – Amend, Simplify and Remove Unnecessary
                               Irrelevant Statutory Requirements for Local Government
                               Infrastructure Plans
Motion                         That the Local Government Association of Queensland make
                               representations to the State Government to amend the Statutory
                               Guidelines with respect to Local Government Infrastructure Plans to
                               remove the unnecessary and irrelevant requirements to enable a fit for
                               purpose, easily attainable and manageable process that does not create
                               unnecessary costs for Local Governments and their communities.
Background                     Local government infrastructure planning and charging framework has
                               been subjected to continual legislative change since the commencement
                               of the Integrated Planning Act 1997 and Sustainable Planning Act 2009
                               to the present day. However, each time the legislation has changed, it
                               has created further complications and difficulties for local government to
                               achieve the task of completing the required statutory documents and at
                               significant additional cost to do so for something that should otherwise be
                               straight forward, fit for purpose and simple to undertake and achieve.

                               The current adopted charges regime commenced in July 2011 applying
                               infrastructure charges through local government resolutions with
                               maximum charge levels capped under the State Planning Regulatory
                               Provision (adopted charges). These resolutions can also incorporate all
                               the trunk infrastructure network planning details otherwise required in a
                               Priority Infrastructure Plan (PIP) up until the cut-off date for when a new
                               current Local Government Infrastructure Plan (LGIP) must be in place.

                               It should be specifically noted that the pre 2011 PIPs (introduced by
                               legislative amendments in September 2004) required full costing of
                               existing and future trunk infrastructure along with demand catchment
                               apportionment specifically for the purpose of developing Infrastructure
                               Charges Schedules in determining the level of infrastructure charges that
                               development were to contribute towards each trunk network. These PIPs
                               required 3rd party review by the Queensland Competition Authority (QCA)
                               undertaken and paid for by the State Government as part of their review.
                               Due to the complicated, time consuming, resource and cost hungry
                               processes involved to prepare these PIPs with ICS’s, only a handful of
                               Local Government PIPs ever made it to the QCA review stage that
                               occurred during 2008-2009. Following these QCA reviews, this process
                               then ceased with commencement of further legislative reviews and
                               changes for infrastructure planning and charges.

                               On commencement of the 2011 adopted charges legislative
                               amendments, PIPs no longer contained Infrastructure Charges
                               Schedules (ICSs) as these are now obsolete under the new adopted
                               charges regime with only costing of future trunk infrastructure remaining
                               relevant. Subsequently, many Local Governments were able to instigate
                               the required infrastructure planning documents quickly, initially through
                               adopted charges resolutions prior to completing and adopting PIPs.

                               The July 2014 SPA legislative amendments continue the adopted
                               charges regime along with additional offset, revaluing and conversion

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