Heritage protection increased

Heritage protection increasedThe Queensland Government has introduced tighter protections for state heritage places, and local heritage and character buildings. On 1 December 2016, the Local Government Electoral (Transparency and Accountability in Local Government) and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2016 was introduced into Parliament to improve transparency and accountability in local government electoral disclosure requirements, and contains strengthened rules and penalties to prevent the demolition of heritage and character buildings. The amendments include the ability for the Minister to give immediate effect to a Temporary Local Planning Instrument (TLPI) to protect local heritage buildings. In addition to the heritage and character matters, the Bill brings forward changes to remove the discretion of the Planning and Environment Court in determining the most appropriate allocation of costs for appeal proceedings. The Property Council has been a vocal opponent to this change, as it will likely see a rise in unmeritorious appeals, inflicting significant time and cost delays on other parties. The Bill is currently before the Infrastructure, Planning and Natural Resources Committee, with public submissions due by 30 January, 2017. The Committee is required to report back to Parliament by 7 March, 2017.Updates to SDAP – new heritage trigger The Government has also amended the State Development Assessment Provisions (SDAP) and Sustainable Planning Regulation 2009 (SPR) to trigger proposed development adjoining a heritage place. The changes will affect certain development types adjoining state heritage places, subjecting them to the same level of scrutiny as the heritage place itself. The changes took effect from 5 December and are not retrospective. The amended version of SDAP can be found here. Other changes to the SDAP, State Planning Policy and SPR are proposed as part of the Government’s broader planning reform agenda. More information is available here.