Meeting papers

South East Queensland (SEQ) Regional Plan
The site is located within the Urban Footprint of the SEQ Regional Plan. The applicant submits that
that the proposed urban development is consistent with the goals, elements, strategies,
subregional regional directions and the urban footprint principals within the SEQ Regional Plan
because it:
•   accommodates urban growth in the urban footprint in an efficient manner;
•   is in a location where there is spare capacity in the infrastructure networks;
•   can be designed to adequately address constraints such as ecological values, unstable land,
    flooding and bushfire, which would otherwise warrant the retention of the land for rural
    residential development rather than urban development;
•   has good access to public transport as it is within 900m of a bus stop and within 1.2 km of the
    Cooroy train station;
•   is close to services such as a supermarket, shops, newsagency, post office and schools and
    is 800m of the District Centre zoned land;
•   will provide innovative solutions in housing to cater for a diverse range of community needs
    including people suffering from housing price pressures in the Shire, persons with special
    needs, and people escaping from domestic violence situations; and
•   will maximise the variety of available land in suitable locations to support a range of housing
    choices under a range of market condition in that it would provide for community and
    affordable housing options during a highly inflated market.

In response to the applicant’s submission Council’s Strategic Planning Branch has provided the
following advice:
The Urban Footprint has been used to define and consolidate the physical extent of future
development within the SEQ region. Urban development outside of the Urban Footprint is not
allowed and has not been supported for that last 2 decades.
However, as stated within ShapingSEQ “the Urban Footprint is not an urban zone and does not
imply that all land can be developed for urban purposes. … Land in the Urban Footprint may be
unsuitable for urban purposes for other reasons including constraints such as flooding, land slope
and scenic amenity, and the need to protect significant vegetation, which may include matters of
national environmental significance and parts of the regional biodiversity network.”1
The Urban Footprint still contains land that is constrained and unsuitable for urban uses. For
instance, ShapingSEQ states an assumption that 30% of the gross land area added to the Urban
Footprint in the last review not developable.
Within the Urban Footprint, planning schemes are relied upon to do the detailed constraints
analysis and include land in the most appropriate zone having regard for the highest and best use
of the land. The Noosa Plan 2020 is relatively new, and the Planning Minister was satisfied with
the extent of urban residential zones applied within it.
“ShapingSEQ relies on local government planning schemes to determine the most suitable zone
for each land parcel within the Urban Footprint. The development assessment process determines
the extent and suitability of development on each site.”
Local government planning schemes provide finer grain local policy and must advance the relevant
matters of state and regional significance. While ShapingSEQ provides a regional policy
expression about matters of state and regional significance contained in the SPP, it does not deal
with every aspect of the SPP; local government planning schemes are still required to advance
those aspects of the SPP not dealt with by ShapingSEQ.




1 from the description of the Urban Footprint within Chapter 3


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