Logan City Council has launched an online environmental offset estimator tool to help streamline its development application process.
The tool provides applicants with estimated financial compensation figures for unavoidable removal of native vegetation before lodging a development application.
This provides more certainty and transparency for developers – from mum-and-dad investors with small blocks right up to major urban developments.
The new initiative has attracted industry attention, winning a Planning Institute of Australia 2015 (Queensland Branch) Award for Planning Excellence – Improving Planning Processes and Practices.
The online portal allows anyone to create a custom report by drawing the area for potential clearing while viewing a range of planning scheme overlays such as native vegetation and aerial photography.
An estimate of offset costs and a report of environmental values are emailed directly to the customer within minutes with explanatory notes, such as types of offsets applicable, ecological value of the clearing and ways to reduce offset cost.
It also informs customers if an area is subject to a State Government offset and provides the contacts within relevant authorities to approach for further information.
It should lead to better planning decisions and environmental outcomes, making it easier for developers to consider different clearing footprints to minimise the impact and cost of proposed developments while ensuring retention of areas of higher ecological importance.
The environmental offset estimator is part of a suite of interactive mapping tools being developed to support the implementation of the Logan Planning Scheme.
Logan City Council’s new Logan Planning Scheme, which has been operational for several months now, reflects the state’s best practice in planning and development and has been positively received by planning professionals and the community.
