2015-07-21 Planning & Organisation Committee Agenda

PLANNING & ORGANISATION COMMITTEE MEETING AGENDA                                 21 JULY 2015



On 19 June 2015 Council received advice from the Minister for Infrastructure, Local Government
and Planning that, once certain conditions have been met, she is satisfied the relevant State
Interests will have been integrated and that Council may then proceed to publicly consult on the
proposed amendments.

2.   Changes required by the State

Comments and changes requested by the State are outlined below and in more detail within
Attachment 1 of this report. The State’s initial comments from October 2014 were divided into
Part A - State Interests; Part B - Legislative Requirements and Part C - Advice. Having
addressed many of these already, the Minister’s letter of June 2015 reinforced State Interests
and Ministerial Conditions.

Most of the requested changes have relatively minor implications for operation of the scheme.
The more significant changes are outlined below:

a)   Reflecting the full list of State Interests

The State has requested that the State Interest of “Liveable Communities” and “Natural hazards,
risk and resilience” be added to the list of interim DA requirements which apply to the planning
scheme as listed in Part 2 Section 2.6.9 This has been done.

b)   Agriculture and Agricultural Lands

The State has expressed a preference for Council to incorporate the State’s Agricultural Land
mapping in the planning scheme Natural Hazards Overlay. However the State’s mapping is
significantly different from Council’s own Agricultural Land Conservation Area (ALCA) and there
is some concern it overlaps with areas of biodiversity value and with the Lake Macdonald water
supply catchment. It has been agreed Council will review our position on agricultural land ahead
of the next planning scheme and determine a locally appropriate methodology to verify
agricultural lands.

Other State requests of relevance to agriculture relate to deletion of the phrase “strategic
cropping land” and removal of references to “good quality agricultural land” except where
explicitly linked to our mapped Agricultural Land Conservation Area. These requests have been
accommodated.

c)   Water Quality & Water Infrastructure

The State has requested various changes regarding protecting water quality and water supply
infrastructure.

The shape of the Lake Macdonald water supply catchment is to change slightly to reflect the
State’s Water Supply Buffer Area as shown on the State Planning Policy Mapping. The State has
requested a buffer to the Mary River drinking water supply also be included on the Natural
Resource Overlay Map and that it be protected in the same way as the Lake Macdonald and
Cedar Pocket Dam water catchments.

This has an impact on rural lands along the western edge of the Shire from approximately the
Bruce Highway in the north to the southern boundary of the Shire (175 newly affected
properties). As all new agricultural uses or home-based businesses are code assessable within
the Water Supply Catchment, it somewhat counteracts the proposed amendments seeking to
reduce regulation on starting new farming or value adding enterprises.


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