Toowoomba council endorses new measure to unlock emerging communities land across city for new housing developments

A new measure by the Toowoomba Regional Council is set to unlock land parcels for housing developments to ease the current crisis, with the lots potentially able to host 3700 new homes.

The Toowoomba Regional Council has endorsed a new TLPI that could unlock land for 3700 new homes. The Chronicle Archives

A new council measure could unlock more than 3700 extra lots onto the Toowoomba market over the coming years, in a move that has been praised by the development industry.

Councillors this week endorsed a new temporary local planning instrument (TLPI), which will be sent to the state government for approval.

The new instrument applies to 11 large parcels of land across five suburbs, all of which zoned as “emerging communities” and within the council’s current priority infrastructure area.

If the TLPI is endorsed by the state the parcels will instead be treated as “low density residential”, essentially reducing the cost of any application by thousands of dollars and cutting its assessment period by months.

The move is a big red-tape cut for developers, who now don’t need to submit a “variation request” for any housing projects on the subject land.

The parcels that made the cut for the TLPI are in Drayton, Glenvale, Torrington, Rockville and Cotswold Hills.

Addressing Tuesday’s committee meeting, planning and development general manager Stewart Somers said a number of potential parcels zoned as “emergency communities” were omitted to avoid further risks.

“We’ve sieved out a lot of those sites and they’re not included in this TLPI, the more difficult sites,” he said.

“This TLPI doesn’t include the incentives of medium density, and it’s not intended that will water down those provisions.

“The land we’re talking about are large parcels.”

Planning and development portfolio Councillor Bill Cahill said the industry had been happy with the concept.

“I‘m really happy that this council has taken some light steps in aiding our community, not the industry alone,” he said.

“Our community lives with the legacy, so I’m proud the council has taken some positive steps in a time of need.”

Edward Hodge, who is the Toowoomba branch chair for the Urban Developers Institute of Australia, called the measure a “genuine red-tape reduction” for the industry.

“The TLPI is a very positive step by council and it will absolutely lead to more supply in a timely manner,” he said.

“This is a genuine red-tape reduction and it will allow for the market to respond to the shortages we face.”

The council did outline several risks, including that projects could be approved under state government law if the application isn’t processed during tight time frames, even if they feature serious issues that need to be conditioned.

Other risks include the council being pressured to condition approvals due to applications now being code-assessable, as well as engineering concerns around pumped stormwater management systems.

Check out where land is being unlocked below:

Originally published as Toowoomba council endorses new measure to unlock emerging communities land across city for new housing developments