The new Southern Downs Regional Council planning scheme is a little closer to fruition after a meeting of councillors on 28 August.
Most of the details of the meeting were kept confidential but voting was made public.
The resolutions mostly laid out how the council would respond to State Government requests for further information on specific areas of the proposed planning scheme.
Council planning schemes are usually renewed every 10 years and it takes about two years to complete the process, including a review by the State Government.
Mayor Melissa Hamilton announced a declarable conflict of interest regarding a decision relating to Emu Swamp Dam as she had previously advocated that council should not be involved in the Granite Belt Dam Irrigation Project.
She said that although she had never been on a board or committee relating to the dam and that the proponent was in liquidation so in any future iteration of the project the particular issues she had commented on might not be relevant, a possible a perception in the community about a conflict of interest led her to ask to stay in the meeting and participate, but not vote.
The resolution was for the council to provide justification to retain all references to the Emu Swamp Investigation precinct within the Southern Downs Planning Scheme and associated maps.
Plans for the Massie future industrial precinct were to be amended to indicate that non-rural uses which required isolation from urban areas because of their impacts such as noise or odour were not incompatible with the rural nature of the zone.
For the area known as the Kangaroo Paddock, the council wanted to continue with a split zone to retain the northern 33ha within the community facilities zone. It would pursue an application to reconfigure the lot so the boundary of the 33ha was aligned with the Morgan Park Recreation Reserve.
Zoning of selected reserves was also put to the vote, as was increasing an area from proposed rural residential zone to low density residential zone. In Allora, a proposed mixed use zone would include some lots in the industry zone while others stayed within the rural zone.
The transferrable development rights policy was to continue with amendments.
The decision on Sugarloaf Forestry was to include the land in a constrained zoning and investigate evacuation routes in case of bushfire, housing need, environment and conservation. Also to be studied was the ability for individual lots to be self sufficient in relation to services including stormwater disposal, road and social impacts and the level of compliance so the council could further consider a Sugarloaf precinct in future planning.
Regarding Stanthorpe’s Carnell Raceway, the council would not apply the Motor Sports Environs Overlay to the area.
Setbacks in the new planning scheme would be amended to 20m for all buildings (other than industrial) in a rural zone, it was decided.
