2015-03-31 Planning & Organisation Committee Agenda

PLANNING & ORGANISATION COMMITTEE MEETING AGENDA                                   31 MARCH 2015


4.       Relationship with Council’s Infrastructure Planning obligations

Council is required under current legislation to prepare a Local Government Infrastructure Plan
(LGIP). The Statutory Guideline that directs the preparation of LGIPs allows that where the local
government has a distributor-retailer under the South East Queensland Water (Distribution and
Retail Restructuring) Act 2009 (e.g. UnityWater), the planning (e.g. plans for trunk infrastructure
and desired standard of service) for water and wastewater trunk infrastructure networks will be
included in the relevant water Netserv plan and that accordingly there is no requirement for these
networks to be included in the LGIP.

However, the planning assumptions within the Netserv plan must be consistent with Council’s
LGIP. The Statutory Guideline requires this to be documented through the LGIP checklist and
appointed reviewer’s statement.

Once agreement is reached between Council and UnityWater on the DMaTT data, it will deliver
the necessary information to provide the necessary LGIP sections for “Population and
employment growth”, “Residential dwellings and non-residential floor space” and associated
“Infrastructure demand” for each network. This in turn will provide a platform for informing the
planning of each infrastructure network.

Previous Council Consideration

At the Planning & Organisation Committee of 20 May 2014 Officers reported to Council on the
Utility Model and UnityWater’s Interim Connection Policy. At the time Council was advised that
the Policy did not fully address the planning assumptions for Noosa Shire. Specifically it did not
adequately address the type, scale, location and timing of future development. As a result
Council resolved to conditionally endorse the Interim Connection Policy subject to a number of
amendments including that closer alignment with Noosa Council’s future development
assumptions be incorporated.

At the Planning & Organisation Committee of 19 August 2014 Council was informed of the
legislative amendments and the requirement for amendment of Council’s current PIP to a LGIP in
compliance with the new Statutory guideline 03/14 “Local government infrastructure plans”.

Finance & Risk

The current legislation requires every local government to have a fully compliant LGIP in place by
1 July 2016 to continue Council’s infrastructure conditioning and charging powers. This currently
represents approximately $1.5 to $2 million per annum in estimated future revenue.

Failure to reach agreement with UnityWater on DMaTT will jeopardise preparation of the LGIP
within the current timeframe.

Consultation
Nil.

Departments/Sections Consulted:

       Community Services                      X   Planning & Infrastructure
       Disaster Management & Public Order          Building & Plumbing Services
       Waste & Environmental Health            X   DA Planning
       Community Facilities                    X   Strategic Land Use Planning
       Cultural Facilities                         Asset Design & Investigations
                                                   Asset Planning
                                                   Civil Operations
                                                   Environment



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