Something Old… Something New: The Sustainable Planning Bill 2009

The Minister for Infrastructure and Planning tabled the Sustainable Planning Bill in the Queensland Parliament on Friday.

The Bill will repeal and replace the Integrated Planning Act 1997 ("IPA") and, if passed, is expected to commence concurrently with the new Local Government Act 2009 in December this year.

The Bill is the culmination of the IPA Reform Project which commenced in February 2006. The key objective of the Bill is to achieve a more timely and streamlined land use planning and development framework.

The Bill retains many of the core features of IPA in a similar form, including:

• the Integrated Development Assessment System ("IDAS"), with some process amendments and the addition of the new "compliance stage";