For information about a particular development, check out Brisbane City Council’s development.i website, where you can search via the application number or the property address.

This City Plan 2014 mapping tool allows residents to visually explore the zoning rules and regulations that apply throughout the city, including information relating to property boundaries, parking areas, heritage overlays and flood maps. You can use the ‘Map Contents’ tab to turn different features and map elements on and off. Please note that specific Neighbourhood Plans, such as the South Brisbane Riverside Neighbourhood Plan, can override the more general provisions of the City Plan. (In case you’re wondering, I have serious concerns about the current City Plan 2014 and the South Brisbane Riverside Neighbourhood Plan, and will continue to push for changes to these documents.)

The best number to contact if you have questions about PD Online or the City Plan 2014 is 3403 8888.

The push for sustainable development must necessarily revolve around a campaign for affordable housing, because as long as housing (and real estate more generally) is treated first and foremost as a commodity and a target for speculative property investment, private developers will always have a strong incentive to ignore and manipulate planning rules.

Right now, many developers are demanding (and being granted) exemptions to our current city and neighbourhood plans (many of these plans already permit extremely high density development without sufficient infrastructure investment). If there’s money to be made from property, some (perhaps most) developers will always look for ways to cheat or corrupt the system. So we can call for tighter planning controls, but we must simultaneously advocate for substantial reforms that reframe housing as being a basic human right, rather than a target for speculative investment.