Brisbane City Council (BCC) is proposing amendments to the Brisbane City Plan 2014 to make it easier to build, extend or upgrade Residential Care Facilities and Retirement Facilities, to meet the needs of Brisbane’s aging residents.

It is worthwhile understanding these amendments as some land owners might reconsider their development options (e.g. Multiple dwellings versus a Retirement facility) to take advantage of the incentives being offered, including additional building height and discounts for infrastructure charges.

The proposed changes are currently on public display until Friday 21 September 2018. Key features of the changes include:

• Promoting the refurbishment of existing facilities and reuse of existing sites, and broadening the zones in the city where they may be accommodated. This includes lowering the category of assessment from Impact (requiring public notification) to Code assessment where applications meet specific criteria, including in the Low density residential zone (sites >3,000m2);
• One assessment code for retirement and aged care facilities, instead of multiple codes;
• Increasing building heights by 2 storeys in medium and high density residential zones;
• Allowing small businesses such as small-scale cafes, shops and community facilities to be included in retirement and aged care facilities as Code assessable;
• Permitting an existing building to change from a retirement facility to an aged care facility, or vice versa.
• Reduction in infrastructure charges by 33% for qualifying developments approved between 1 September 2016 and 31 December 2019 as an incentive to encourage more supply.

Note: Council is no longer progressing changes in relation to privately owned sport and recreation land that has been the subject of various development applications in recent months.

Want more information?

More information can be found here, or contact Doug from our office on (07) 3876 0533 if you would like to understand how these changes might benefit you, or if you need help preparing a submission.

To view as a PDF, click here Aged Care Amendments.

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