Recently council has been made aware of some confusion regarding the zoning of certain blocks of land within the City. Specifically, issues have been raised with regard to residential homes being located on commercially zoned land. The current City of Mount Isa Planning Scheme was adopted on 1 August 2006 in accordance with the requirements of the Integrated Planning Act 1997 (now the Sustainable Planning Act 2009). The intent of a local planning scheme is to outline a local council’s plan for the local government area outlining an integrated plan for the future.
Local planning integrates and balances economic, social and environmental needs and aspirations of the local community to provide an orderly approach to land use and change. They focus on land use, development, infrastructure and valuable features of the area. As part of this process, councils are required to plan for expansion to accommodate both population growth and economic growth to ensure the sustainability of the City, while ensuring the needs of the State and the regional community are incorporated.
Therefore, as part of the City of Mount Isa Planning Scheme (2006) process, a number of residential properties were rezoned from Residential to Commercial to allow for expansion of the commercial sector. Where a property was previously zoned Residential and had an existing lawful residential dwelling constructed on it, the subject property has their existing residential use rights protected under the previous Integrated Planning Act 1997 (which the current planning scheme was prepared and adopted under) and the current Sustainable Planning Act 2009.To explain further… from a planning point of view, what this rezone basically means is that the existing residential use rights may continue in perpetuity (regardless of future changes to planning schemes). In terms of land use, the rezone could be considered an advantage as the subject property can be sold as an existing residential use or as a new commercial use. Additionally, commercial zoning does enable land uses that owners may not be aware of. For instance, the zone can potentially be developed into high density residential apartments (subject to development application approval).
It has come to Council’s attention that the financial lenders have recently changed their policy on lending practices and the amount of deposit required for residential properties which are zoned commercial. Unfortunately, Council has no control over the lending practices for financial institutions and are unable to make strategic planning decisions based on changing decisions by banks.
The Mount Isa City Council has raised this issue with the Department of Infrastructure and Planning, who are investigating these concerns.
To view the legislation which protects the existing use rights, please follow the website links below:
