Hard won victory: Isaac coastal plan wins state recognition
The award comes ‘in the face of significant backlash and a tide of growing discontent for the process’
Mackay
Don't miss out on the headlines from Mackay. Followed categories will be added to My News.
ISAAC Regional Council has been recognised for its coastal planning policies "in the face of significant backlash and a tide of growing discontent for the process".
The council was the overall winner at the 2020 Queensland Awards for Planning Excellence on Saturday night for its "outstanding and contemporary policy for the community" but it also took out "The Hard Won Victory Award".
The Isaac Regional Planning Scheme and Coastal Planning Provisions involved a natural hazard planning policy review, community consultation and technical investigation to develop a new planning scheme that embodied a development assessment framework that provides for sustainable outcomes on the Isaac coastline.
"Its greatest achievement has been how the council and consultants have completely turned around soured relationships with the community, which as most planners will tell you is possibly the most difficult situation that a project can ever be put in," Planning Institute Australia judges said of the council's partnership with Ethos Urban and Cardno.
"A true hard won victory requires challenges that seem insurmountable and treacherous when attempting to navigate towards great governance and community outcomes.
"With public perception eroding faster than coastlines, Isaac Regional Council has achieved an
enviable milestone with assistance from its consultants.
"The council has replaced outdated planning policies, updated inferior digital mapping and overcome public perceptions of reduced development rights, to create a modern and robust planning scheme with advanced informatic digital mapping and data analysis, while gaining public support from multiple rounds of face-to-face public consultation.
"An increased level of trust, positive sentiment and rapport with the community, was generated through six rounds of face-to-face engagement.
"Isaac Regional Council has demonstrated inspirational dedication to meeting community expectations and community first project management, while communicating risk hazard mitigation and protection measures.
"This project will create a pivotal shift in natural disaster and storm inundation perception from the public and it will communicate better planning outcomes to the public and developers for years to come.
"For a regional council with limited resources, this was a huge achievement and truly a hard won victory."
In taking out the overall award on the night, judges said the council had built a lasting legacy of trust and community understanding.
" Isaac Regional Council has demonstrated inspirational dedication to meeting community expectations and community first project management, while communicating risk hazard mitigation and protection measures," they said in a commemorative booklet created for the night.
"This project will create a pivotal shift in natural disaster and storm inundation perception from the public and it will communicate better planning outcomes to the public and developers for years to come.
"For a regional council with limited resources, this was a huge achievement and truly deserving to be the overall winner of 2020."
PIA president Wendy Evans said the planning excellence awards had recognised the best planning in Queensland.
"Queensland's planners are doing incredible work to improve local communities all over our state and should be proud of the contribution they make to shaping our local neighbourhoods, towns and cities," she said.
Full list of winners:
▪ Overall Winner - Awarded to Isaac Regional Council, Ethos Urban and Cardno, for
the Isaac Region Planning Scheme and Coastal Planning Provisions
▪ Young Planner of the Year (the Robert Swider Memorial Award) - Awarded to Daniel
Krause
▪ Planning Champion Award - Awarded to Daniel Gore QC
▪ Wendy Chadwick Encouragement Award - Awarded to Bundaberg Regional Council
for the Burnett Heads Town Centre Local Plan
▪ From Plan to Place Award - Awarded to Brisbane City Council and HSW Nominees
for Howard Smith Wharves
▪ Hard Won Victory Award - Awarded to Isaac Regional Council, Ethos Urban and
Cardno, for the Isaac Region Planning Scheme and Coastal Planning Provisions
▪ Improving Planning Processes and Practices - Commendation to Sunshine Coast
Council for Environment and Liveability Strategy
▪ Healthy Active by Design Award (with the Heart Foundation) - Awarded to Logan City
Council for the Slacks Creek Greenlink, with a Commendation to Mirvac for
Bim'bimba Park
▪ Public Engagement and Community Planning Award - Sunshine Coast Council for
the Sunshine Coast Community Strategy - Building a Stronger Community Together
▪ Best Planning Ideas (Large Project) Award - ARUP Australia Pty Ltd and Torres Cape
Indigenous Council Alliance Inc. for the Cape, Torres and Gulf Economic
Opportunities Plan, with a Commendation to Hassell and Townsville Hospital and
Health Service for the Townsville University Hospital Master Plan
▪ Best Planning Ideas (Small Project) Award - Awarded to Place Design Group for the
Latrobe and Given Terraces Place Strategy and activation
▪ Cutting Edge Research and Teaching Award - Commendation to Tropical Urbanism
and Design Lab at James Cook University with CA Architects, LA3 Landscape
Architecture and TPG Architects for the Tropical Design Studio: Strategic Concept
Masterplans for Northern Queensland Country Towns
▪ Outstanding Student Project (University) Award - Awarded to Jesse Marnock from
James Cook University for the Sustainable Indigenous Livelihoods Conceptual
Framework, with a Commendation to Tristan Turner from the University of the
Sunshine Coast for the Value of Urban Design
▪ Outstanding Student Project (Secondary) Award - Awarded to Hayden Zulijan from St
Laurence's College for Planning for Sustainability in Brisbane's Suburbs: a
Recommendation for the Vacant Site at 15 Greendale Way, Carindale, with a
Commendation to Emma Goffin from Wavell State High School for Population
Challenges Samford Valley.
The Planning Institute of Australia is the national organisation representing the planning
profession.
Car veers off Bruce Highway amid road condition warning
A man has been lucky to escape uninjured after his car went off the Bruce Hwy at Mackay where authorities are warning drivers to take extra care on the still-wet roads now pitted with potholes.
‘Resilience, 5am starts’: Mining town’s top ‘young citizen’ no ordinary teen
From school dux to Young Citizen of the Year, Corbin Wood has not only excelled in academics but also offers a refreshing outlook on the value of small towns, hard work and understanding war history.
Airport, parts of Bruce Hwy open but more rain still to come
The previously evacuated Proserpine Airport is back in business and more roads across the Mackay and Whitsundays reopened on Saturday, but rising river and rain warnings remain for the already soaked stretch of Qld coast. LATEST.
‘Danger to the community’: Mum barred from the road until 2040
A Qld mother of three had been slammed for her terrible driving behaviour following a three month crime spree spanning from the Fraser Coast to Mackay, and involving aiming a vehicle at police officers.
New owners revealed: Mining town bakehouse reopens
Just three months after it closed a Whitsunday community welcomed back its only bakery, as the new owners worked with the old to bring fresh bread to the town.
WATCH: Driver found stranded on ute roof in raging floodwaters
A North Queensland man is lucky to be alive after being swept off the road and stranded on the roof of his ute in raging floodwaters for hours — until heroic swift water firefighters came to his rescue. WATCH THE VIDEO.