State Facilitated Development

What is State facilitated development?

A development application for State Facilitated Development (SFD) is a development application provided with an alternate development assessment pathway which aims to deliver development that is a priority to the State (for example, infill and affordable housing).

To be a development application for SFD, the development application must be an existing development or change application or a new proposed development or proposed change application as defined by the Planning Act 2016 (Planning Act). This means that most standard development application requirements apply, however, timeframes will be specific to the SFD process and set out in the Development Assessment (DA Rules).

State agencies and local governments will play a critical role where required by providing technical advice to ensure that state interests and local government priorities are integrated in the assessment of a development application for SFD.

For both applicants and the State, to minimise any delays in getting this development ‘on-the-ground’, SFD provides greater certainty by limiting standard appeal rights.

Who are the State Facilitated Development Team?

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.

Why do we need a new development assessment pathway?

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.

Key features

• 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.

Process overview for development applications for SFD

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

• Stage 1A: Preliminary stakeholder engagement and pre-application advice;
• Stage 1B: the Planning Minister’s declaration, and
• Stage 2: the assessment of the development application for SFD by the Chief Executive.

It is important to note that 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. Preliminary stakeholder engagement & pre-application advice (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.))
Minister decision (Statutory Process: 10 b.d. for decision)
Minister declares application for SFD (Statutory Process

Where the Planning Minister declares the development application a development application for SFD, the development application for SFD is assessed. Timeframes for the declaration of a for development application for SFD is prescribed by the amendments to the Planning Act.

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 amendments to the DA Rules.

What type of development can I expect using this pathway?

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.

Summary of the changes

Amendments are proposed to the Planning Act, Planning Regulation 2017 (Planning Regulation) and the DA Rules to facilitate this new development assessment pathway for development applications for SFD.

The below indicates the proposed amendments. The amendments to the Planning Regulation and DA Rules are in development and with be subject to upcoming public consultation.

Proposed amendments

This list of proposed amendments is intended to provide an overview and is not intended to be an exhaustive list.

Planning Act

• The Bill amends 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 are able to be imposed for an affordable housing component (for SFD and all development applications).

Planning Regulation

The amendments to the Planning Regulation will provide for:

• the criteria for the declaration of a state facilitated development (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.

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.

Guidance Material

Supporting guidance material will provide guidance on:

• requirements for stakeholder engagement and public notification,
• the process for applying for, declaring, and assessing a development application for SFD,
• the types of development accepted through this pathway and what design outcomes are expected,
• what constitutes development that is a ‘priority to the State’ and what types of affordable housing is required,
• the application materials required for each stage of the SFD process,
• how will other statutory processes be dealt with (for example, approvals from the Queensland Heritage Council, processes under the Nature Conservation Act 1992, processes under Vegetation Management Act 1999, processes under the Transport Infrastructure Act 1994).

Amendments are also proposed to be made to the Environmental Offsets Regulation 2014 to create a new prescribed activity which is specific to SFD.

Further information

For further information please contact the Department of Housing, Local Government, Planning and Public Works via planning4housing@dsdilgp.qld.gov.au.

For proposals for State Facilitated Development, please reach out to the State Facilitated Development Team via SFD@dsdilgp.qld.gov.au.