2017-06-29 Special Meeting - Agenda Item 2 - New delegations for the Planning Act 2016, Planning Regulation 2017 and Development Assessment Rules

SPECIAL MEETING REPORT                                                                 29 JUNE 2017


The Planning Regulation 2017 will commence at the same time as the Planning Act 2016 on 3
July 2017 and supports and complements the new Act. These regulations include:
     Assessment matters applying generally to all development applications, and the process for
      Ministerial call ins;
     The mandatory matters from the Queensland Planning Provisions (QPP) under SPA such as
      zone names, purpose statements and definitions;
     The provisions from the state planning regulatory provisions that continue under the planning
      systems, such as the SEQ koala habitat provisions and the SEQ Regional Plan;
     The state’s development assessment schedules prescribing assessable development;
      assessment benchmarks and other assessment matters; assessment managers; referral
      agencies; and state agency fees for development applications;
     Requirements for public access to planning documents and information;
     Content of planning and development certificates; and
     The process for approving plans of subdivision.

The Development Assessment Rules set out the new development assessment process and
include the key steps of the process and what rules apply.


Previous Council Consideration

Ordinary Meeting, 15 June 2017, Item 5, Page 5
That Council note the report by the Manager, Planning & Environment to the Planning &
Environment Committee Meeting dated 6 June 2017, and
A.    Pursuant to section 257 of the Local Government Act 2009, agree to delegate the powers for
      the Planning Act 2016 as detailed in Attachment 1;
B.    Note that a Special Meeting of Council may be required for those code assessable
      applications where the proposed development is of significant community interest and where
      new legislative decision making time frames mean that a decision cannot be made through
      the normal Council Meeting cycle.


Finance & Risk

Operationally, if delegations are not current or officers operate outside of their delegated authority,
relevant decisions made and action taken may be considered unauthorised and subject to legal
challenge. This may expose Council to the risk of unnecessary and expensive legal action by third
parties and reputational damage.

All of Council’s delegations contain the following conditions to manage the risk of officers acting
beyond the appropriate delegated authority:
“1.   The delegated officer must exercise this delegation in accordance with Council resolutions,
      policies, guidelines, procedures, industrial instruments and agreements.
2.    If the CEO on delegates any of these powers the delegated officer must exercise any
      delegated power in accordance with the scope and limitations of the subject officer’s letter of
      appointment and/or, position description, qualifications, technical knowledge and legislative
      requirements.”




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