Mary MacKillop Catholic School plans expansion to campus with Toowoomba Regional Council

After being approved for a campus expansion last year, a Catholic school has returned to the council to make “minor changes”, which includes a new performing arts centre.

Mary MacKillop Catholic School at Highfields has proposed changes to a planned expansion, which will include a performing arts centre.

A Catholic school north of Toowoomba has put forward changes to a planned expansion of its campus, which will include a new performing arts centre.

Mary MacKillop Catholic School on Highfields Road in Highfields was approved for an extension by the Toowoomba Regional Council in March last year.

The application included an expansion to the playground for junior school students and did not involve the construction of new buildings.

Now the school has returned to the council with a “minor change”, which would turn an already covered area into a new performing arts centre.

The change would also extend the covered lunch area for students.

In a letter to the council, Precinct Urban Planning’s Paul Kelly argued this constituted a minor change rather than requiring a new development application.

“The change does not result in dramatic modification to the approved built form acknowledging that the majority of the proposed works for the Performing Arts Centre involve the enclosure of existing covered areas,” he wrote.

“The change does not introduce new impacts or increase the severity of known impacts.”

The council has not responded to the application.