City of Gold Coast Planning and Development Hub

From 1 June 2023 the City commenced a position in accordance with Council resolution G20.0618.018 (18 June, 2020) whereby only Stormwater Australia SQIDEP-certified proprietary stormwater treatment devices would be considered for use on development sites.

For applications considered properly made before 1 June 2023, the City has accepted proposals which include proprietary treatment devices that have been submitted to Stormwater Australia for SQIDEP evaluation but have not yet been certified.

To this end, the following requirements will be included for applications considered properly made before 1 June 2023. The updated requirements will be reflected on development approval conditions. The changes are summarised as follows:

• monitoring in lieu of receiving SQIDEP certification is no longer supported
• certification or endorsement letter from Stormwater Australia must be submitted to the City prior to issue of a development approval for Building works
• If a SQIDEP-approved device results in lower pollutant removal rates than modelled for in the development application, the applicant must provide supplementary treatment measures to meet the City Plan stormwater quality objectives.

If certification is not able to be achieved for the nominated device within a timeframe suitable for applicants, an alternate and currently approved device is required to replace it. To facilitate this, a change application may be required. Applicants are encouraged to contact City officers to discuss options.

For development applications lodged on or after 1 June 2023 the City requires that developments utilise Stormwater Australia SQIDEP-certified proprietary stormwater treatment devices.

City Plan Version 10 commences today (4 July 2023) and incorporates six amendments:

• Major Update 2 & 3 (in part)
• Major Update to City Plan Policies (Schedule 6)
• City Plan Major Amendment – Heritage overlay provisions
• Local Government Infrastructure Plan Amendment
• Minor and Administrative Amendment 9
• Minor and Administrative Amendment to City Plan Policies (Schedule 6) Land development guidelines

City Plan Version 10, as well as superseded and historic versions of City Plan, are available via ePlan - cityplan.goldcoast.qld.gov.au/eplan/

On 17 October 2022, the Deputy Premier and Minister for State Development, Infrastructure, Local Government and Planning and Minister Assisting the Premier on Olympic and Paralympic Games Infrastructure approved, in part, the Major Update 2 & 3 amendment package.

The Minister approved 21 of the 34 items in the amendment, which commenced today as part of City Plan Version 10.

Thirteen items were unable to be adopted as the Minister was unable to determine the extent to which some of these changes will impact housing supply.

The 13 remaining items will be progressed as part of a new Amendment Strategy endorsed by Council in May 2023. Council’s desire to continue to advance these items is based on the Minister’s ongoing support for the policy underpinning them and their importance to the community and development industry.

The new Amendment Strategy will deliver prioritised outcomes through smaller amendment packages sequenced to improve community understanding and be more focussed and streamlined.

The first amendment introduces key foundational changes such as the new Low-medium density residential zone and a revised approach to measuring building height. This amendment is anticipated to go out for public consultation in August.

Find out more about the Amendment Strategy and current City Plan amendments on the City’s website - cityofgoldcoast.com.au/cityplan

The Heritage overlay provisions amendment commenced today as part of City Plan Version 10 and is the third major amendment to the City Plan. The amendment provides greater clarity on development requirements within and around Local heritage places, so that the Gold Coast’s places of cultural heritage significance are appropriately recognised and conserved into the future.

This amendment revises the Strategic Framework element – cultural heritage, the Tables of assessment and the Heritage overlay code. It also introduces new assessment provisions for development involving demolition, partial demolition or removal of a Local heritage place, a new Exemption Certificate process and a new City Plan Policy - Heritage management.

City Plan Version 10, as well as Superseded and Historic versions of City Plan, are available via ePlan - cityplan.goldcoast.qld.gov.au/eplan/

We have implemented changes to the way we handle payments for development application fees, effective from 4 July 2023.

Applications will only be considered received once the funds have cleared in accordance with section 51(1)(b) of the Planning Act 2016. Please note that certain payment types may take up to three (3) business days to clear.

Failure to pay the notice of payment within 10 business days will result in the cancellation of the application.

What does this mean for you?

This means that, as stated in part 1.2 of the Development Assessment Rules (under section 68 of the Planning Act 2016), the day after the payment is receipted will be considered as Day 1 of the development application process.

Why is the City making this change?

This change is being implemented to align the City’s processes with the timelines outlined in the Planning Act 2016. It aims to provide clarity and transparency, eliminating any confusion regarding Day 1 of the application process.

What happens once payment is received?

The day after the payment has cleared, the City will commence the necessary properly made checks as part of the pre-assessment process. Once all properly made requirements have been met under section 51 of the Planning Act 2016, the assessment process will commence. If the properly made requirements have not been met, the City will issue an Action Notice to the applicant. Failure to respond to the Action Notice within 20 business days will result in the cancellation of the application.

The City of Gold Coast (City) is committed to planning and delivering trunk infrastructure to facilitate growth on the Gold Coast.

In accordance with the Minister’s Guidelines and Rules Version 1.1, the City developed an amendment to the Local Government Infrastructure Plan (LGIP). In February 2023 the LGIP amendment received Ministerial approval to proceed to adoption. The amendment was adopted by Council on 23 May 2023 and commences 4 July 2023 as part of the City Plan Version 10.

The LGIP amendment incorporates more recent development projections and planning assumptions, with updated trunk infrastructure network planning to service revised growth projections until 2041.

For more information on the Local Government Infrastructure Plan, visit cityofgoldcoast.com.au/LGIP or email strategicinfrastructure@goldcoast.qld.gov.au

Resilience through design and development is a critical part of the City’s response to natural hazards.

The City recently published two non-statutory guidelines to increase community awareness of flood and bushfire risks.

• Bushfire resilient design guidelines
• Flood resilient design guidelines

The guidelines can be downloaded from the City design principles & guidelines page on the City of Gold Coast website.

The guidelines provide resources and resilient design options that can be considered in the design of new dwellings, as well as renovation and improvement ideas for existing dwellings.

Effective resilient site planning and building design will better prepare communities and their properties to mitigate bushfire and flood risks and reduce potential property damage costs.

We have made changes to our PD Online platform to improve customer usability and accessibility to development application information through a single portal. The changes went live on 28 May and will provide additional cyber security through the decommissioning of the legacy portal.

What does this mean to me?

• The way you access applications previously held in the legacy portal has changed.
• Viewing and searching documents relating to a development application has improved.

Accessing development applications lodged before July 2017

• Previously you would access the information via a legacy PD Online portal – this is no longer available and instead you will be redirected to the current PD Online.
• You will now see two new enquiry lists in PD Online to access information and documentation on development applications lodged before July 2017.

• There are no changes to the existing PD Online portal search function – you can search by application number, address, date, Lot on Plan or decision date.
• Search tip: Only enter the “number component” of the application removing the “prefixed letters”. For example:
  COM/2018/80 searched as 2018/80 or 80
  MCU201701871 searched as 2017/1871 or 1871
• Search tip: There is no change to the Building approvals search - additional historical building applications from 1934-1998 will be displayed via the PD Online portal.

Viewing and searching

As part of the changes, we will also be implementing a new look and increased functionality when viewing documentation relating to an application.

New and improved functions:

• Key word searching across all displayed document fields
• Sorting capability (ascending and descending for each header column)
• Ability to export a full (or filtered via keyword search) documentation list to a CSV file
• Displayed “A” numbers provides a common reference for external users and internal staff
• Additional document information including document type and size

For help on how to use PD Online please contact Planning Enquiries Centre (07) 5582 8708.

From 1 November 2021, only accredited contractors appointed by the City are able to perform standard connections.

Registrations are now open – for the first intake of 2022.

To ensure all interested contractors have sufficient time to register and undergo the required pre-assessment prior to standard connection training, please register your interest via Vendor Panel by Monday 16 May 2022.

For those contractors who submitted their registration after 1 November 2021 – please review and amend any outstanding information in Vendor Panel.

Once the City has reviewed your application, you will be notified via email that your registration has progressed and an invite will follow to attend standard connection training.

For more information on the accreditation process please see the Standard connections accredited contractors webpage.

Click here to register to become a WW Standard Connection Accredited Contractor.*

*Please view the guide to navigating Vendor Panel.