Queensland's new Office of Growth Management should be given the power to ensure that the policy underpinning planning regulation is consistent across the whole of Government, says a prominent Brisbane planning and development lawyer.
The Queensland Government yesterday announced the establishment of Growth Management Queensland, aimed at improving development approval processes and providing a coordinated approach to managing population growth in Queensland, while at the same time removing three key 'greenfield' areas from the State's planning system.
David Nicholls, Partner in HopgoodGanim's Planning and Development practice, says that the decision to give responsibility for the development of these greenfield areas to the Urban Land Development Authority (ULDA) shows that our planning system can no longer cope with major projects, a result of uncoordinated regulation at the State level.
Mr Nicholls believes that Growth Management Queensland should be given enough clout to ensure that new regulation is not inserted ad-hoc into Queensland's planning system without proper consideration of the economic and social consequences.
"Since 2004 there has been a rapid increase in State regulation of development, particularly in South-East Queensland," he says. "Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be anyone monitoring the long-term social and economic effects of so many layers of regulation".
"As a result, new laws and policies have been injected into our planning system without any proper consideration of how they interact with each other. Despite the push for 'ecologically sustainable development' in Queensland, many planning instruments focus purely on ecological considerations, without taking into account the economic and social impacts. These factors all deserve equal attention and need to be balanced to achieve outcomes that improve community well-being."
According to Mr Nicholls, Queensland operates under a more complicated, costly and slower regulatory system today than ever before, and the Government's current solution to making sure key development is able to proceed is to go around the system using the ULDA.
"The ULDA has become the 'fast track'. The 'slow road' is made up of all other development areas - most of the urban footprint areas in the State. However, they also deserve consideration in the public interest, and the Government should pay attention to fixing the whole system rather than circumventing it for 'special' cases."
"Over the last few years, the development process has been beset with barricades, diversions and, unfortunately in many cases, dead ends. If Growth Management Queensland is adequately resourced and given the authority to properly coordinate all the Government departments involved in developing regulation, it will go a long way to improving the planning and development system in Queensland."
Contact:
Esther Cohen, Communications Advisor
Tel: 07 3024 0192
