FAQs
- review of lighting
- vegetation thinning to enhance sightlines
- maintaining and improving surveillance
- auditing and updating way finding strategies to easily connect persons to available transport options
- aligning Protective Services shift times with the locking of public amenities
- continuing to utilise the City’s Safety Camera Network program as a public safety tool
- further consultation with the Queensland Police Service.
- everyone can experience great music
- Gold Coast artists and music businesses thrive
- positive national and international perceptions
- coordinated City commitment and delivery.
- develop the skills of artists and music industry (EXCEED)
- develop a planning framework to support live music (UNLOCK)
- build our reputation as a music city (JOLT)
- harness the City's capacity to provide leadership and investment (LEAD).
What is a Special Entertainment Precinct (SEP)?
A Special Entertainment Precinct (SEP) is a zoned area where special development laws apply for amplified music from venues. The establishment of a local law allows Council to regulate amplified music noise in the SEP instead of the State Government.
Why was the Gold Coast CBD, Southport CBD selected for the first SEP?
The declaration of Southport as a Priority Development Area (PDA) of the State under the Economic Development Act 2012 acknowledges the Gold Coast CBD is ready for growth.
Southport as a location has gone through an extensive planning review and acoustics investigation. Southport is a designated PDA with an existing cluster of live music venues, liquor licenses, retail activity at street level and access to high frequency public transport. This makes Southport the right location for the first SEP on the Gold Coast.
What is the Southport PDA?
Priority development areas (PDAs) are parcels of land within Queensland identified under the Economic Development Act 2012 to deliver economic development and development for community purposes. The Southport PDA Development Scheme boosts our plans to revitalise Southport as the Gold Coast's Central Business District (CBD). The PDA status removes development barriers, increases investment opportunities and helps economic development.
The Southport PDA Development Scheme is the regulatory document which assists with planning, carrying out, promoting, coordinating and controlling land development within the PDA.
What changes will we see?
There will be two specific live music precincts created consisting of the Established core area and the Emerging core area (see figure for the zones).
Venues located within the SEP’s Established or Emerging core areas will have amplified music noise regulated by the City rather than the Office of Liquor and Gaming Regulation as a part of their liquor licence. Amplified Music Venues will be regulated under Local Law No.16 (Licensing) 2008 and a new Subordinate Local Law No. 16.9 (Amplified Music Venues) 2021.
Amplified music venues are already part of various land uses within the SEP such as a Bar, Hotel, Theatre, Food and Drink outlet. There are no changes proposed to the levels of assessment for these uses.
Amplified music venues may need to provide a noise management plan and appropriate attenuation treatments to meet the maximum noise levels permitted external to the venue.
Micro-breweries may establish in the CBD where associated with entertainment activities (brewpubs) and are compatible with residential amenity and infrastructure capacity.
These changes promote an increase in the vibrancy and cultural significance of the CBD with a thriving local night-time economy.
What does the SEP mean for residential amenity (management of noise)?
The location of the SEP aims to minimise the noise impacts on existing residents.
New dwellings in the SEP and buffer areas will include noise mitigation measures (e.g. double glazing) while designing balconies with outdoor living areas.
Amplified music venues, where located in the same building as a residential premise or with a wall within 5 metres, must meet additional building design and construction standards to ensure noise to bedrooms and living areas are acceptable.
The permitted noise level for amplified music venues decreases substantially after 11:30PM on Sunday to Thursday and after midnight on Friday and Saturday.
What does the SEP mean for safety in the CBD?
A crime and safety analysis was conducted to inform Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) considerations for the SEP with involvement from Queensland Police Services.
The City will consider implementation of environmental design improvements to support the SEP and boost safety, including:
Will there be changes to the way buildings are designed?
There will be additional construction costs for residential development to ensure compatible with the intent for live music venues within the SEP. These additional costs are an acceptable consequence of the economic and social benefits which live music will provide to the function of the CBD.
Within the Outer buffer area, the impacts on construction costs are equivalent to development along a transport noise corridor.
A proposed SEP Built Form and Urban Design Guideline provides guidance to design amplified music venues and residential development to meet acoustic assessment criteria.
The proposed Southport PDA Sub-precinct 1 for the SEP emphasises the requirement for new development to provide active street frontages. Design of development needs to contribute to the vibrancy of the SEP as a live music hub for the Gold Coast.
Amplified music venues, located in the same building as a residential premise or with a wall within 5 metres, must meet additional building design and construction standards to ensure noise to bedrooms and living areas are at acceptable levels.
My business is located just outside the SEP boundary, what does this mean for me?
There are no changes proposed to the regulatory framework for businesses located outside the SEP which include amplified music. The regulation of amplified music noise from licensed venues located outside the SEP will remain the responsibility of the State Government Office of Liquor and Gaming Regulation under the Liquor Act 1992.
What type of music venues do we anticipate in the SEP?
The SEP does not impose restrictions on the size of music venues that may establish.
The SEP Established core area will protect existing live music venues. These venues are predominantly urban, with some incorporating active frontages and rooftop bars above the street. Other venues of various sizes may establish over time within existing buildings or as part of new development.
The Emerging core area does not presently include live music venues and comprises a built form that is predominantly commercial and light industrial in nature. There is opportunity for new venues to emerge ranging from temporary, pop-up events through to possibilities for new tier one (up to 100 pax), tier two (up to 500 pax) and tier three (up to 5,000 pax) venues.
What are micro-breweries?
A micro-brewery is a type of Medium impact industry land use where the beverage production volume is less than 200 tonnes per annum. A micro-brewery is often referred to as a craft brewery. Where located in the Southport SEP, a micro-brewery will need to be co-located with a Bar or Hotel.
Development for a micro-brewery will be PDA assessable development. A micro-brewery must be designed to prevent loss of amenity and threats to health and safety on surrounding activities and properties (including expected future residential development).
Development for a micro-brewery could result in a high or significant increase in infrastructure demand for water and sewerage. The proposal may require an infrastructure capacity assessment which may trigger additional required infrastructure or local area network improvements to facilitate development. The applicant will be responsible for necessary infrastructure delivery and funding.
The provision of safe servicing vehicle arrangements can be a complication for micro-brewery development and requires careful consideration in selecting a site and designing the development.
Does this mean that there will be nightclubs in Southport?
Nightclub development remains prohibited in the Southport PDA. The amplified music noise criteria (external to the venue) will be significantly reduced after 11:30PM on a Sunday to Thursday and after midnight on Friday and Saturday.
Will the opening hours become later for the venues in the SEP?
The proposed SEP does not change hours of operation for businesses. Licenced premises in the Gold Coast CBD, Southport can presently operate into early hours of the morning.
Are any changes proposed to City Plan?
A City Plan minor amendment will be made to identify the SEP (Established and Emerging Core areas). The City Plan minor amendment will be made after the Southport PDA Development Scheme amendment is endorsed.
What is the Music Action Plan?
The Music Action Plan 2021 (MAP) provides a blueprint for the City that will positively impact the live music sector on the Gold Coast by providing access to resources, promotion of Gold Coast music nationally and internationally and stronger partnerships across all tiers of government, peak bodies, and private enterprise.
The Plan identifies four strategic outcomes:
The MAPs key actions will be achieved through programs that:
Which Local Laws will change and why do they need to change?
Currently noise conditions are set under a business’ liquor licence and regulated by the Office of Liquor and Gaming Regulation. The Local Government Act 2009 allows for the regulation of noise from venues within a SEP to be moved to the local government with the establishment of a local law.
This regulatory approach reduces the commercial risks for businesses providing live music by decoupling the regulation of noise from the venue’s liquor licence. Together with planning controls for new development, venues will have certainty that the identified noise levels in the local law will not be reduced as residential development encroaches.
The amendment to Local Law No. 16 (Licensing) 2008 (LL16) includes the addition of a new regulated activity – ‘Amplified Music Venues’. An Amplified Music Venue is a venue that emits amplified music as a principal element of a business conducted at the premises and is located within a SEP.
Proposed Subordinate Local Law No.16.9 (SLL 16.9) will assist in implementing LL16 to regulate noise from Amplified Music Venues. SLL 16.9 will establish the licensing application system whereby applications will be assessed against criteria and licences issued with appropriate conditions to manage noise emissions from the venue.
Note that an amended Schedule 1 has been included in the consultation documents as further amendments were required after the draft local laws were presented to Council. The amended table ensures the criteria adequately reflects the criteria in the Southport PDA.
Local Law Changes – what does this mean for venues?
Noise from existing venues located in the SEP will no longer be regulated by the State Government (Office of Liquor and Gaming Regulation). A separate licence issued by Council will set appropriate conditions in relation to noise emissions from amplified music.
Considerations for existing venues have been addressed in the drafting of the proposed Subordinate Local Law No. 16.9. As part of the transitional provisions, existing operators may be given conditional relaxation to exceed the default maximum noise levels if a Noise Management Plan is approved. These relaxations will be reviewed if complaints are received.
As a part of the implementation of the new laws, City Officers will assist venue operators in making their application and aim to make the process as streamlined as possible.
No costs will apply for licence applications.