Cooran - Development Application

The State Assessment and Referral Agency (SARA) within the Department of
State Development, Manufacturing, Infrastructure and Planning (DSDMIP) is the
single referral agency for all development applications where the Chief Executive
of the Planning Act has a jurisdiction as either the Assessment Manager or
referral agency. It is noted that there are still a number of other entities that
exist outside of SARA, that still hold jurisdiction for their own referral agency
triggers. Where referral to one of these agencies is required, SARA are not
involved and referral is undertaken to the agency directly in accordance with the
requirements under the Planning Act.

In accordance with Schedule 10 of Planning Regulation, the proposed facility
requires no referrals.


6.2.2   State Planning Policy (SPP)

The State Planning Policy (SPP) is a statutory instrument that identifies matters
of State interest in land use planning development within Queensland. A state
interest is defined under the Planning Act as an interest that the Planning
Minister considers:
   •    affects an economic or environmental interest of the state or a part of
        the state
   •    affects the interest of ensuring that the purpose of the Act is achieved.
The SPP, effective 3 July 2017, now identifies 17 state interests in land use
planning and development categorised into five themes relating to:

   •    liveable communities and housing
   •    economic growth
   •    environment and heritage
   •    safety and resilience to hazards
   •    infrastructure
Under the Act, each local government planning scheme needs to set out
integrated state, regional and local planning and development assessment
policies for an entire local government area. The SPP supports this by setting
down the state interests that apply to plan making, and that should be given
effect through each local government planning scheme.

The SPP applies as a ‘matter to have regard to’ under the Planning Regulation
2017 only if the relevant state interests in the SPP are identified as having not
been appropriately integrated in a local planning instrument, and only to the
extent of any inconsistency. Part E of the SPP contains the state interest policies,
and where relevant the assessment benchmarks for some of the state interests,


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