FAQs
- Improving Corridor Habitat
- Rehabilitation of gaps and pinch points
- Preventing Wildlife Deaths
- Safe fauna passage across road or rail barriers
- Reducing Impacts on Corridors
- Management of urban and/or peri-urban and/or rural area impacts
- Management of storm tide and sea level rise impacts
- Protecting Corridor Habitat
- The proposed amendments to City Plan seek to limit clearing and protect existing corridor habitat.
When can I have my say on the proposed amendment?
Submissions on the Environmental significance overlay and Planning scheme policy amendments may be made by any person during the consultation period, which starts on 11 May 2023 and ends on 31 July 2023.
What are the proposed stronger protections based on?
The proposed amendment is based on the Wildlife Connections Plan that was adopted by Council in 2018. The Wildlife Connections Plan sets out Council’s policy for the protection of the City’s most important core habitat areas and the wildlife corridor habitat that connects them. The plan sets out the actions needed to implement the outcomes of the Wildlife Connections Plan. The plan includes a priority action to protect existing corridor habitat through the Redland City Plan.
What if I have an existing building envelope or covenant on my land?
If your property is subject to a building envelope or a covenant, typically imposed through the development approval process, it is important to understand the associated limitations and ensure compliance with them. Covenants and building envelopes are attached to the land and bind the owner and all subsequent owners until they are released and function similarly to overlays within the City Plan.
They are tools that provide specialised controls specific to the land, such as protecting significant native vegetation, preserving environmental features, managing weed growth, or determining building placement. In general, building envelopes and covenants take precedence over the provisions of the City Plan. To understand the restrictions that apply to your property, it is important to review your specific covenant carefully.
Does the proposed amendment affect any properties outside the urban footprint?
The proposed stronger protections on native vegetation clearing only relate to the urban footprint of the City. The amendment does however propose to update the Redland City Plan’s Environmental Significance overlay to reflect the current State mapping of environmental values. This includes changes to the State environmental mapping across the City. It is important to note that the State mapping is already in place and overrides the Redland City Plan mapping of State environmental values.
The mapping on my property includes non-native vegetation, or cleared areas?
The mapping is based on vegetation mapping which was created using LiDAR, a remote sensing methodology.
This is the most commonly used method to map vegetation as a practical and economically sensible way to capture vegetation cover over large areas. There is a margin of error with this technology, and occasionally non-native species might be mapped.
However, the City Plan is clear that the trigger for assessment is only the clearing of native vegetation. Therefore, if a non-native species is mapped in error it will not have any effect on the property.
It is also important to know that the mapping was created at a point in time and that there is a lengthy statutory process Council must follow before consultation commences.
That means there may be vegetation that was mapped but has been removed since that time.
What do the proposed stronger protections do?
The stronger protections propose to remove the current Redland City Plan native vegetation clearing exemptions from private and public properties that have mapped State and/or local environmental values and are identified in the Wildlife Connections Plan as either core habitat or a wildlife corridor. This will require approval by Council for all clearing of native vegetation in areas mapped as MLES: Wildlife core and corridor habitat.
Do the proposed stronger protections apply to small private properties?
No, the proposed stronger protections are to only apply to private properties that are 1,000m2 or greater in size. This size is considered to be sufficient to support residential uses on a property and facilitate wildlife movement.
Do the proposed stronger protections on native vegetation clearing affect private and public properties?
Yes, the proposed amendment includes parts of both private and public properties that are currently mapped as having State and/or local environmental values and identified in the Wildlife Connections Plan as either core habitat or a wildlife corridor. The proposed amendment identifies all parts of affected private and public properties in a new mapping layer in the Environmental Significance overlay called – Matter of Local Environmental Significance (MLES): Wildlife core and corridor habitat.
What will the clearing of native vegetation in areas mapped as MLES: Wildlife core and corridor habitat be assessed against?
The amendment proposes to include new assessment criteria in the Redland City Plan for the clearing of native vegetation in areas mapped as MLES: Wildlife core and corridor habitat. The new assessment criteria requires that the clearing of native vegetation in mapped areas is firstly, avoided. Where avoidance is not reasonably possible, any clearing of native vegetation needs to be minimised, and if there remains a loss of native vegetation, it would need to be offset with planting.
Has the proposed new MLES: Wildlife core and corridor mapping been verified?
Each of the parts of private properties proposed to be included in the proposed new MLES: Wildlife core and corridor mapping has been verified to ensure it is located in a wildlife core habitat or corridor as identified in the Wildlife Corridor Plan and contains either state or local environmental values.
Does the proposed amendment exclude any areas of the urban footprint?
Yes, the proposed amendment does not include areas in the urban footprint that have been subject to a detailed level of ecological investigation and statutory protections for core habitat and wildlife corridors in the Redland City Plan. This includes the Kinross Road Master Plan Area, South East Thornlands Structure Plan Area, Shoreline Master Plan Area, Southern Moreton Bay Islands and the draft South West Victoria Point Local Plan.
Land in the centre and industry zones identified in the Redland City Plan have also been excluded as these zones are not considered compatible with delivering viable core habitat or facilitating safe wildlife movements.
The Priority Development Areas at Toondah Harbour and Weinam Creek are also excluded as these areas are not regulated by the Redland City Plan.
What support and assistance is Council considering for affected private landowners?
Council has provided in-principle support to assist affected private landowners through the existing Environmental Partnerships Program and a rate concession aligned to the Environment Levy in recognition of the contribution that affected private landowners make to the City’s environmental values and the stronger protections that affect their properties.
What support is available through the Environmental Partnership Program?
The Environmental Partnership Program provides a range of support to private landowners to manage environmental values on their properties. The level of support is based on the environmental values of a property and ranges from property management advice to financial assistance with property management. See the Environmental Partnership webpage for further details.
How does this proposed amendment help Council protect wildlife corridors?
The implementation of the Wildlife Connections Plan will be achieved through a variety of methods based on tenure and location and will be the responsibility of several areas within the Council. The priority outcomes of the plan will be achieved through:
The figure below provides a visual representation of how the outcomes of the Wildlife Connections Plan can be achieved:
Why is this being proposed in urban areas, where roads, fences and pets put wildlife at risk?
The Redland City Council area contains many existing wildlife habitat networks and corridors with various values. These corridors and networks are essential for viable flora and fauna populations as they enable migration, colonisation and breeding within a fragmented landscape.
Networks and corridors of wildlife habitat may consist of a combination of environmental (bushland habitat) areas, street tree plantings, recreational parks and reserves, residential backyards, nonurban private lands, foreshore areas, waterways and riparian areas.
The WCP is also used by Council to identify roads that affect wildlife movement and use this information to inform things like crossing infrastructure or other actions that Council can take to improve wildlife safety.
The Action Plan associated with the WCP also includes actions to educate residents on the impact of domestic and feral animals and the enforcement of Local Laws to reduce the impact of domestic and feral animals on wildlife.
How has this draft proposal been developed and reviewed ?
The process for making Major amendments is outlined in the State Government (External link) Minister's Guidelines and Rules.
The proposed amendment was endorsed by a resolution of the Council General Meeting on 18 August 2021 with Council agreeing to submit the 01/21 Major Amendment – Environmental Significance Overlay to the Planning Minister for State interest review.
Following subsequent Council responses to Departmental information requests and pause notices, Council asked that any further amendment requests be directed through Ministerial conditions before the amendment is submitted for public consultation.
On 20 July 2022 Council resolved to submit the revised 01/21 Major Amendment Environmental Significance Overlay to the Planning Minister, seeking approval to proceed to public consultation. This step involved the State's review and approval of State interests, prior to approval being granted for public consultation to commence.
On 8 December 2022, the Planning Minister advised Council that the State interest review had been completed and that Council could proceed to public consultation subject to conditions
A minor amendment to sections of the Redland City Plan will be publicly advertised on 5 April 2023, to update and separate the Matters of Local Environmental Significance (MLES) and Matters of State Environmental Significance (MSES) maps as per the Minister's conditions.
At its General Meeting on 15 March 2023, Council resolved to comply with the Minister's conditions and commence public consultation of 01/21 - Major Amendment-Environmental Significance Overlay concurrently with Planning Scheme Policy 1: Environmental significance.
Submissions on the Environmental significance overlay and Planning scheme policy amendments may be made by any person during the consultation period, which starts on 11 May 2023 and ends on 31 July 2023.
After the community consultation closes, Council will consider all submissions before deciding whether to proceed with the major amendment and incorporate it into the Redland City Plan.