Healthy communities supported

The Institute still seeks that these provisions are not enforced on small and challenging sites where the standards could have perverse outcomes on practicality and housing supply.

The State Government will conclude its second round of consultation on the Creating Healthy and Active Communities – Mandatory Provisions today.

The Mandatory Provisions have been condensed to five elements that future residential communities must implement. These provisions will be applied through the Planning Regulation 2017 to require managers to evaluate new residential development against the specific assessment benchmarks. The street tree standard is seen as responsible in health, amenity, consistency, and climate terms.

The elements include requirements for:

1. An average of one street tree provided every 15 metres on both sides of all streets
2. Footpaths on at least one side of residential (local access) streets and both sides of main (access and collector) streets
3. Each created lot is 400 metres from the nearest boundary of a park or other open space area
4. Street block length is a maximum of 250 metres
5. Connected street patterns that respond to the landscape of the local area.

The Institute commended the State Government on their response to our previous submission and efforts to ensure the health of our community is prioritised in designing future communities.

Members across Queensland still have some concerns in meeting the requirements in certain situations in an affordable way for the community. Our submission sought confirmation infill residential and small scale and fragmented residential subdivision can vary against the requirements. The Institute recommended that the State Government adopt a size threshold in applying these provisions or flexibility where outcomes cannot be achieved.

The Mandatory Provisions have undergone considerable work and revision (from the original consultation) as a result of community and industry feedback. The work conducted by the department in ensuring the provisions can be delivered must be acknowledged.

For convenience, the UDIA Queensland Policy team has outlined the main differences and changes since the State first went out for consultation with the Mandatory Provisions.

The UDIA Queensland will continue to work with the State Government to ensure the provisions are workable and realistic in delivering future residential communities in Queensland. Any questions, please contact Policy Executive, Robert Tily via email or on (07) 3229 1589.