State facilitated development

The Queensland Government has created a new State Facilitated Development Team (otherwise known as the SFD team) to speed up planning and development processes and solve development and infrastructure issues that delay new homes. The SFD Team will streamline State significant proposals and target development applications that include affordable and/or social housing.

Separate to this function, the SFD Team will also manage five new pilot projects to test different models of inclusionary planning in Queensland, under the Inclusionary Planning Pilot Program.

A key pillar of the Homes for Queenslanders plan is building more homes faster. The plan sets significant target of one million new homes by 2046. To meet this target, we need to make changes to the planning framework to make sure it can support the right development, in the right place, in a timely manner. The SFD process also supports Queensland’s commitments under the National Planning Blueprint and the National Planning Accord.

This new development assessment pathway helps the State to intervene to undertake a bespoke and holistic assessment to streamline innovative proposals that are a priority to the State.

The key features of SFD include:

• Two stage process for development applications for SFD consisting of declaration stage (by the Planning Minister) and assessment stage (by the Chief Executive).
• Tailored public notification requirements for new proposed development applications which have not already been made to the original decision–maker (for example, local government).
• New powers to impose conditions for the provision of an affordable housing component.
• Tailored criteria which the Planning Minister must consider in declaring a development application for SFD.
• Comprehensive and holistic assessment by the State, considering both State and local interests using the State Planning Policy (SPP), regional plan, purpose statements from the State Development Assessment Provisions (SDAP), Strategic Framework of the local planning instrument, and advice from State agencies, infrastructure providers and local governments.

The SFD process consists of two main stages broken into three parts:

• Stage 1A: Pre-lodgement;
• Stage 1B: The Planning Minister’s declaration;
• Stage 2: The assessment of the application for SFD by the Chief Executive; and
• Post–development approval: Changes or extensions to SFD approvals.

The Planning Minister’s statutory role in the process is finalised at the end of Stage 1, if a declaration of an application for SFD is made.

Stage 1A and 1B – Planning Minister’s Declaration process for development application for SFD

1. Pre-lodgement (non-statutory process)
2. Applicant lodges the request for declaration (non-statutory process)
3. Request is considered (non-statutory process)
4. Minister gives a notice of proposed declaration (Statutory process in Act)

Representation period for stakeholder (Statutory process: min. 15 business days (b.d.))

5. Minister decision (Statutory Process: 10 b.d. for decision)
6. Minister declares application for SFD (Statutory Process)

Where the Planning Minister declares the application an application for SFD, the application for SFD is assessed following the process in Chapter 2 of the DA Rules.

Stage 2 – Chief Executive’s assessment of the development application for SFD

1. Applicant lodges substantially similar application (non-statutory process)
2. Confirmation of application (DA Rules - 5 b.d.)
3. Information Request (DA Rules - 10 b.d. to issue, 30 b.d. for response)
4. Public Notification (DA Rules - requirements determined by notification notice)
5. Assessment and Decision by Chief Executive (DA Rules - 30 b.d.)
6. Development approval or refusal

Timeframes for the assessment for a development application for SFD are prescribed by the DA Rules.

The Planning Regulation sets out criteria that development must be consistent with to be eligible for SFD declaration. The criteria from the Planning Regulation are reproduced below:

• (1) For section 106D(2)(b) of the Act, the following criteria are prescribed—
  • (a)   the development the subject of the relevant application must—
    • (i)     be for predominantly residential development; and
    • (ii)    include an affordable housing component that equates to at least 15% of all dwellings resulting from the development;
  • (b) the affordable housing component must provide—
    • (i)     a diverse mix of dwelling types; or
    • (ii)    diversity in the number of bedrooms contained in dwellings;
  • (c) the application must comply with either of the following—
    • (i)     the premises the subject of the application are completely within a zone supporting residential development;
    • (ii)    the premises the subject of the application are not within an environmental zone or a limited development zone and the Minister is satisfied the premises are or can be readily serviced by infrastructure for the development.
• (2) In this section—
  environmental zone means—
  • (a) any of the following zones stated in schedule 2—
    • (i)     environmental management and conservation zone;
    • (ii)    conservation zone;
    • (iii)   environmental management zone; or
  • (b) a zone, other than a zone stated in schedule 2, that is of a substantially similar type to a zone stated in paragraph (a).
    
    limited development zone means—
  • (a) the limited development zone stated in schedule 2; or
  • (b) a zone, other than a zone stated in schedule 2, that is of a substantially similar type to a zone stated in paragraph (a).
    
    zone supporting residential development means—
  • (a) any of the following zones stated in schedule 2—
    • (i)     general residential zone, low density residential zone, low-medium density residential zone, medium density residential zone, high density residential zone or character residential zone;
    • (ii)    centre zone, neighbourhood centre zone, local centre zone, district centre zone, major centre zone or principal centre zone;
    • (iii)   mixed use zone;
    • (iv)  specialised centre zone; or
  • (b) a zone, other than a zone stated in schedule 2, that is of a substantially similar type to a zone stated in paragraph (a).

Applications for SFD must include an affordable housing component that equates to at least 15% of the total number of dwellings resulting from the development. An affordable housing component is defined by section 65A(3) in the Act as follows:

affordable housing component means a component of development that—

• (a) involves housing that is affordable for particular types of households; and
• (b) complies with the criteria prescribed by regulation.

The criteria stated in the Planning Regulation provides that:

• (1) For section 65A(3) of the Act, definition of affordable housing component, paragraph (b), the component of development must include 1 or more of the following—
  • (a)   housing that is appropriate to the needs of households with low to moderate incomes, if the members of the households will spend no more than 30% of gross income on housing costs;
  • (b)   housing provided by a registered provider for residential use;
  • (c)   housing provided as part of a program, funded by any of the following entities, to support the provision of housing that is affordable—
    • i.         a public sector entity under the Public Sector Act 2022, section 8;
    • ii.         a local government;
    • iii.         the State;
    • iv.         the Commonwealth;
  • (d)   housing that is sold for an amount that is less than the first home concession limit due to the type, composition, method of construction, size or level of finish of the housing;
  • (e)   housing that is rented at or below a value that is affordable for households with low to moderate incomes due to the type, composition, method of construction, size or level of finish of the housing.
• (2) In this section—
  first home concession limit means the highest amount mentioned in the Duties Act 2001, schedule 4A, column 1 (dutiable value of residential land) in relation to which a concession amount relating to transfer duty is applicable under column 2 of that schedule.

The focus of the assessment pathway is to increase housing supply and delivery of affordable housing where matters such as resolving state interests, or outdated planning scheme settings are barriers to the development proceeding, or there is a planning need which is not anticipated by other planning instruments.

This includes developments providing a mix of market and affordable housing. It could also include developments proposing a mix of market, affordable housing and compatible residential uses such as aged care or child care facilities.

The Housing Availability and Affordability (Planning and Other Legislation Amendment) Act 2024 (the HAAPOLA Act) and its consequential amendments which commenced on 22 July 2024, amended the Planning Act, Planning Regulation 2017 (Planning Regulation) and DA Rules to establish a new development assessment pathway for applications to be assessed through SFD.

The below sections provide a brief overview of the key provisions relating to SFD.

Planning Act

• The HAAPOLA Act amended the Planning Act to allow the Planning Minister to declare a development application for SFD if:
  • the application assists in the delivery of development that is a State priority,
  • the development is for an urban purpose,
  • the application complies with the criteria in the Planning Regulation,
  • the Planning Minister is satisfied that the Chief Executive should assess the development application.
• When a declaration takes effect, any decision or decision by the decision-maker stops having effect, any appeal against the decision-maker is discontinued and the process for assessing the application restarts.
• The Chief Executive may assess or re-assess all or part of the development application for SFD.
• There are limited appeal rights for development approvals for SFD.
• Conditions may be imposed for an affordable housing component (for SFD and all other development applications which specifically propose affordable housing).

Planning Regulation

The amendments to the Planning Regulation will provide for:

• the criteria for the declaration of an application as SFD (new section 51B)
• the materials to be made publicly available for inspection or purchase by the Chief Executive
• the effect of particular notices (such as the proposed declaration notice) on assessment processes under the standard development approval pathway
• the criteria for conditioning an affordable housing component and the requirements for a condition for an affordable housing component.

DA Rules

The amendments to the DA Rules provide for:

• A process for assessing and deciding a development application for SFD including tailored public notification requirements, no referrals or appeal processes.
• Reduced timeframes for assessing development applications for SFD (for example, the decision period for the Chief Executive is 30 business days).
• Public notification requirements, with new signage specific to development applications for SFD, to distinguish development applications for SFD from a standard development application, to ensure appropriate community awareness including submitters not having appeal rights.