City of Moreton Bay is one of Australia’s fastest growing regions. As we grow the needs of our communities are changing. Our city is a diverse place with many communities, spanning coastal areas, urban centres and rural and hinterland landscapes.

Growth is bringing new opportunities but it also brings challenges for our local neighbourhoods across the city. It is not happening in one place, but right across our city.

Where growth and development happens is strongly influenced by the Queensland Government’s long-term growth plan for South East Queensland, ShapingSEQ 2023. Under Shaping SEQ, we will need an extra 125,800 homes to support a population of around 792,700 people by 2046. For more information or to read ShapingSEQ.

Our Planning Scheme is one of the tools we use to manage development, guiding how land can be used and serviced as our city grows and changes. Learn more about what a planning scheme is.

Building on the conversations we have had with community about planning projects over the past five years and your feedback through our regular Moreton Says surveys, we are now working towards a new planning scheme. This project is in its early stages.

The new planning scheme will be built using a clearer, simpler structure that will make it easier to understand and update in the future.

The new planning scheme will:

• keep policies from the existing 2016 scheme that are current and working well
• update priority areas where evidence shows change is needed most
• introduce new rules where they are justified.

Bringing in the new planning scheme will involve many steps and take some time. If the new planning scheme changes the planning rules in your area, you won’t see a difference straight away. Changes will only become visible as new development happens. While the planning scheme sets the rules for development, it cannot force landowners to sell or build or control when development happens.

After the new planning scheme commences there will be ongoing amendments following the processes set out in the Planning Act 2016 and associated Minister’s Guidelines and Rules.

Right now, we are about to start Step 2 (early consultation) and from 1 June we are inviting you to share your views on:

• housing supply, choice and affordable living
• infrastructure
• local identity
• environment and biodiversity
• natural hazards
• economic growth and employment.

What you tell us now will inform Council’s decision-making on the new scheme and shape our city for years to come.

You will be able to have your say by completing a short survey online, or in hard copy at one of our Libraries or Customer Service Centres. The survey will be open from 1 June until 4pm 12 July 2026.

We’ll be popping up in locations across the city to encourage everyone to share their views via the survey. Find out where we’ll be here.

Later in the process (Step 6), there is another opportunity to have your say as part of the statutory consultation on the draft planning scheme. We expect this to occur in 2028.

Collection notice

Moreton Bay City Council is collecting your personal information for the purpose of the New Planning Scheme project. If you have provided your email address or other contact details, Council may contact you regarding the project. Council will also use your personal information to update Council’s customer information records and to contact you about other functions of Council.