Planning Breach

The City of Moreton Bay has a comprehensive Planning Policy as prescribed within the Queensland State Planning Act.

There is provision for Planning Scheme Policy Documents (PSPs), and the Residential Design is one such document. The Planning Act goes so far as to define any and every Planning Policy Document as a Planning Instrument.  This gives them true meaning and effect in terms of the Planning Act.

Being a Planning Instrument signifies that Residential Design Instrument must be adhered to.

The PSP-Residential Design document opens with the definitive declaration of:-

Moreton Bay Regional Council adopted this planning scheme policy on 24 November 2015.

That opening declaration locks in the PSP-Residential Design document as POLICY.  Policy must be adhered to as that is the definition of policy.

Now, Let's consider the Section 3 of the Residential Design Instrument.

The Section-3 introductory paragraph more fully describes the need for the Section-3 within the PSP - Residential Design.

There it states (emphasis added) :-

   “Acknowledging that residential typologies are always changing and the distinction between attached and detached dwellings is becoming blurred, this section of the policy describes the residential typologies expected in the General residential zone. These typologies are utilised to demonstrate the variety of dwelling options available.”

A Planning Officer for City of Moreton Bay has pointed out and quoted the single sentence within Section 3 “The below tables are a guide to demonstrate how these factors can be considered to determine the best location for each residential typology.”  

But a Policy is a Policy. Again, we emphasise that the PSP-Residential Design document has been adopted as Policy by the City of Moreton Bay.  Trying to subsequently change that Policy Document to being a Guide is not effective, and not in terms of the QLD Planning Act.

Cambridge Dictionary Definition...
Policy: a set of ideas or a plan of what to do in particular situations that has been agreed to officially by a group of people, a business organization, a government, or a political party

To claim that a Policy statement is only a guide is not legitimate. It has been adopted by Council as a Planning Policy.

We provide a link here and refer you to the Residential Design Document
( the PDF is about 12Mb )

The Section 3 of the PSP - Residential Design is 15 pages long. The section starts on page 14 of the Planning Instrument. To summarily discount its importance and applicability by resting on that one sentence claiming it is a guide only, is strongly challenged, and may be taken to a Court of Law for a Ruling. The "guide" claim does not pass the "Pub Test".  This is created and presented as a Policy Document and integral component of the Planning Scheme..

The opening paragraph for the Section 3 states it uses "typologies" to set out the various dwelling options available. Then the section 3.2.1 does the work of fully describing the range of typologies for each circumstance, based upon precinct, road type and property frontage.

 If it were to be a true guide, it would not be a significant portion within an important Policy Design Instrument. A Guide would be expected to be in a separate document, external to the Planning Scheme Instruments. For the detailed and explicit Section-3 information, to be simply a guide then it should not appear within the Policy Instrument. 

 The Section 3 heading statement itself states it shows the available options.
A high rise built form on the 554 m² property with a 21.5m frontage is not one of the available options for the subject property.

The planned building does not conform with the PSP- Residential Design Instrument.

The City Of Moreton Bay Planning Department attempts to whitewash the non-conformity by claiming that the specifications clearly detailed in section 3 of their Policy Instrument are only a guide.

This is not in accordance with the QLD Planning Act.  A Planning Policy document is a Planning Instrument, and a Statutory Document. The proposed building is not one of the available options as detailed in the Residential Design Instrument, a Policy Document adopted by Council.