The SEQ Regional Plan

By Dr. Bishna Bajracharya

Dr Bhishna Bajracharya is an Associate Professor of Urban Planning in the Faculty of Society and Design, Bond University. He completed his PhD in Geography and Master’s in Urban Planning from the University of Hawaii and has previously worked at the Queensland University of Technology and Australian National University. His major research interests are in urban governance, master planned communities, smart cities and disaster management.

Dr. Bajracharya’s recent work, funded by the Bond University Faculty Grant, reviews the regional planning process in rapidly growing South East Queensland (SEQ) over the last twenty-five years. In the 1990s, strategic regional land-use planning was initiated in response to growing concerns about the rate of growth and the potential loss of environmental, agricultural and cultural landscapes in SEQ. A cooperative exercise between state and local governments resulted in the first “Regional Framework for Growth Management” in 1995, known as the “SEQ 2001”. In 2005 an updated regional framework became a statutory planning instrument. Periodic reviews of the plan have augmented its sophistication and detail, but the overall planning vision and spatial planning approach to contain and guide growth have remained relatively consistent.

Framed within the urban containment paradigm, the latest SEQ Regional Plan (2017) establishes specific principles and statutory planning controls to direct the spatial distribution of growth while attempting to preserve natural, cultural and productive landscapes and overall liveability. Identification of desired regional growth patterns, coordinated governance, economic and infrastructure development and Plan monitoring are key attributes of the framework. Major challenges remain for maintaining regional resilience amidst continuing growth pressures in the region. They include greater recognition and delineation of peri-urban areas, integration of regional planning and disaster management and growth management of peri-urban master-planned communities.

The State of Queensland. Shaping SEQ: South East Queensland Regional Plan (August 2017) Department of Infrastructure, Local Government and Planning, Brisbane.

Figure 1. The SEQ Urban Footprint (Source: The State of Queensland, 2017)

References

Bajracharya, B. and Hastings, P. (2018) A Regional, Strategic Growth-Management Approach to Urban and Peri-Urban Development in South East Queensland, Australia. Journal of Regional and City Planning, V.29 (3) pp.210-233