The Better Housing Amendment is an amendment to the Moreton Bay Regional Council Planning Scheme 2016 that aims to deliver better housing and better neighbourhoods across our region. The Moreton Bay Regional Council Planning Scheme 2016 is the legal document that regulates housing and other development in the City of Moreton Bay local government area. The amendment is considered a ‘major amendment’ that follows a lengthy statutory process, set by state legislation. To learn more about the amendment process click here.

Council has received feedback from the community that new homes and neighbourhoods are not always delivering well designed, liveable places. To address these concerns, Council is proposing changes to the planning rules via an amendment to the Moreton Bay Regional Council Planning Scheme 2016 – the Better Housing Amendment.

The Better Housing Amendment seeks to deliver the following improvements to our future homes and neighbourhoods in urban areas of the region:

• lot sizes that can accommodate backyards for outdoor living
• appropriate setbacks and site coverage to avoid overcrowded neighbourhoods and loss of privacy, sunlight and breezes
• diverse types of housing in well-chosen locations that offer affordable lifestyles
• more greenery like open areas, trees and landscaping, so neighbourhoods look and feel good
• better parking requirements – to accommodate cars on-site and less on our streets.

The Better Housing Amendment will improve Council’s existing policy for housing mix to meet the diverse needs of our community in terms of households, ages, lifestyles and incomesy. This is an important consideration under the state government’s State Planning Policy for housing.

The proposed changes will make it easier to provide different types of housing and density close to train stations and centres, or near parks, public transport and local activities, where our communities have told Council this is best provided. Current restrictions that limit lot and housing types will be removed to better achieve this mix.

Importantly, the amendment does not limit housing supply. There are no changes to the amount of residential zoned land, or the assumptions used to plan for future residential development.

Our communities have told Council their homes and neighbourhoods need to be better designed and liveable places that have ‘more’ – more room to live, more green space, more parking and more appealing streets. We know our current policy is missing some of these fundamental liveability elements. At the same time, these places also need to be affordable for residents. This is a difficult balance to strike.

Through this amendment, Council is working with many stakeholders to get the balance right between design and liveability concerns and affordability. One of the ways we are trying to achieve this is through supporting more diverse housing types and sizes in well-serviced areas of our neighbourhoods, close to existing shops, services, jobs, public transport and amenities. These areas support more affordable living because the cost and time to get to and from home are lower, in most cases infrastructure is already in place, and residents have a greater choice of housing to suit their needs.

The amendment continues to ensure residential development can progress through the simplest, lowest-risk assessment process possible to assist with the affordable delivery of housing.

The amendment responds to priority design and amenity issues identified by the community that can be addressed in the short term. These include:

• character and built form outcomes in the Next generation neighbourhood precinct (and equivalent Transition precinct and parts of the Caboolture West local plan)
• built form outcomes for secondary dwelling development
• off-street car parking outcomes for identified residential uses to improve amenity
• the scale and built form of student accommodation development
• a reduction to the boundary of the Warner Investigation Area.

Residents’ concerns have led Council to draft the Better Housing Amendment. Compelling feedback from Moreton Says surveys, customer enquiries, previous submissions and other planning and engagement activities have informed the proposed changes.

To better understand the issues being experienced and inform future policy changes, Council has:

• undertaken statistical research to better understand current and emerging demographic trends
• reviewed relevant development applications
• reviewed and compared Council's current planning scheme against other council planning schemes in South East Queensland and across Queensland
• received inputs and advice from Council's design experts on best practice urban design principles of key housing types
• documented key findings and recommendations into a series of supporting policy directions papers

A planning scheme amendment is a legal process set by the state government through legislation. There are different types of planning scheme amendments that can be undertaken.

The Better Housing Amendment is a ‘major amendment’, which means it is proposing changes to policy that need to be reviewed by the state government, Planning Minister and community.

This process involves:

• preparation of the amendment by Council
• state government review of the draft amendment, which may result in further changes
• public consultation, where formal submissions are invited during a 20-business day period (now closed)
• Council’s review, response to, and possible further changes based on submissions received. This must be documented in a consultation report that is publicly available
• Planning Minister’s consideration of the draft amendment and whether Council can adopt it
• formal adoption and commencement (i.e. approved amendment becomes part of the planning scheme).

The Planning Scheme Amendments information sheet further explains this process.

Amendments to planning scheme policies have a separate amendment process which is described here

Council endorsed the Amendment for community consultation at its General Meeting on 2 August 2023. The statutory consultation period was open between 7 August 2023 and 4 September 2023. Consultation has now closed. Click here for more information about the timeline and next steps.

Now that submissions received during public consultation have been reviewed and addressed by Council, the Minister for State Development, Infrastructure, Local Government and Planning will review the Amendment (including any changes made in response to submissions) and advise Council if the Amendment may be adopted (with or without conditions).

Proposed changes to the Planning Scheme will take effect once the proposed Amendment is approved by the Minister and Council subsequently makes a decision to adopt and commence both Amendments.