Businesses face tighter suburb fit

BUSINESSES wanting to set up in low-density suburbs and neighbourhoods will soon face tighter restrictions from the Toowoomba Regional Council.

Councillors voted this week to start amending the planning scheme, which if implemented would require greater oversight if a business wanted to set up shop in a quiet, leafy suburb.

But the proposed changes weren’t universally received, with Cr Bill Cahill saying there were issues with what developers could get away with before having to front the councillors.

THE Toowoomba Regional Council has taken the first step towards a change that will make it tougher for businesses to set up in residential areas.

Councillors voted on Tuesday to start making the 21st amendment to its planning scheme, focusing on “non-residential development in residential zones” as a result of community feedback.

Once passed by the State Government in coming months, proposals to build child-care centres, places of worship and veterinary clinics in low-density areas will be impact-assessable and possibly need to come before the councillors.

The reuse of existing nonresidential buildings for food and drink outlets, shops, health-care services that don’t increase the gross floor area by more than 25sq m and sit on larger than local roads will be considered generally acceptable.

Similar changes apply in low to medium density zones, but with the added proviso that a development could be considered acceptable if it was near a hospital or an “urban consolidation

‘‘ RESIDENTS JUST WANT A DEGREE OF CERTAINTY AROUND BUSINESS IN THEIR NEIGHBOURHOOD. CR BILL CAHILL

precinct”.

But not every councillor agreed with the changes, with Cr Bill Cahill taking issue with the allowable extension of up to 25sq m.

“Residents just want a degree of certainty around business in their neighbourhood,” he said.

“GFA equates to additional impacts, floor stock, clientele.

“I don’t care whether it’s new or existing - it’s not genuine reuse if a business can bringing additional floor space.

“If we knocked out the permissible 25sq m floor space, I’ll vote for this.”

Cr Nancy Sommerfield also disagreed with aspects of the amendment proposal.

Cr Anne Glasheen supported the motion, calling it a good first step that would be revised before it came into law.

“We have strengthened our planning scheme to control this. I think we are in the right direction here and what we have here is a good start,” she said.

The council has started the process to review its planning scheme, which was first introduced in 2012 and has been amended 20 times since.

After the meeting, Cr Cahill said the rule changes did not address the issue of subsequent businesses expanding dwellings without needing to front the council.

“There’s lots of feeling out there in the community around these neighbourhood centres becoming bigger because the planning scheme doesn’t effectively deal with that,” he said.

“It’s not a genuine deterrent for encroaching into a residential area.

“It would if we made it impact-assessable and if they wanted to increase the size, because the cost of that path and the due diligence they need to prove their case, would act as a deterrent.

“There wasn’t enough will around the table (on Tuesday) to really be serious about encroachment.”