Social Infrastructure Planning

Implementation Guideline No 5 to the SEQ Regional Plan – Social Infrastructure Planning Guidelines

The Guidelines were required to be in the form of a non-statutory guide that could aid the Queensland State Government, Local Governments and non-government entities in delivering social infrastructure in a land use planning context and to effectively support existing and new communities in SEQ. The Guidelines included mechanisms for:

• Planning - developing a non-statutory social infrastructure planning methodology and appropriate comparative rates of provision for social infrastructure planning
• Funding - articulating current and innovative funding options for land acquisition, establishment and operation of community facilities and services across the range of types of social infrastructure; and
• Implementation - articulating mechanisms for implementing the framework at a regional and sub- regional scale.

The Guidelines were entered by OUM into the Planning Institute of Australia (PIA) Award for Excellence and won both State and National Awards in 2007. Briggs & Mortar’s role was throughout the document, but with special focus in the area of benchmarking and comparative analysis.

Review of Guideline No 5 to the SEQ Regional Plan – Social Infrastructure Planning Guidelines

The original Guidelines were developed as a draft, to be reviewed after 12 months to enable feedback from Local Government and other prospective users. In the intervening time a wider need to apply the Guidelines to the whole of Queensland emerged.

The purpose of the review was to modify the Guidelines in view of feedback from users, and to broaden its application to a range of regional settings to support growth management needs across the State. It was also necessary to update various details, and to ensure that it continued to reflect contemporary social infrastructure planning best practice.

WAM Community, Sport and Recreation Facilities Study

The aim of the WAM CSR Facilities Study was to provide a background technical report that would inform a review of the Woden Town Centre Master Plan (2004) and preparation of a Master Plan for the Mawson Group Centre and Athllon Drive. The Master Plans are designed to inform the development of ACT Government Territory Plan Precinct Codes, guiding land use and providing development controls for these centres.

Gladstone Social Infrastructure Strategic Plan

The plan included a comprehensive review of existing data and planning information, an audit of existing social infrastructure, identification of the anticipated impacts of major project developments, identified gaps in social infrastructure now and across the medium and long term horizon, and the development of strategies to address these gaps.

The approach of the study was also intended to provide capacity building in the local community to enable them to review and monitor the Plan in line with the growth scenario achieved. It was additionally a project aim that a coordinating structure was left in place to stimulate the continuation of a follow-up or ongoing social infrastructure working group. This has been set up in the form of the ‘Gladstone Foundation’, established to better prioritise scarce social infrastructure funds in line with identified priorities.

Fraser Coast Social Infrastructure Needs Assessment Study

The Sustainable Growth Strategy aimed to provide the Fraser Coast Regional Council with a vision and strategy to guide future land use in the region to 2031. The project presented an important opportunity to undertake a coordinated and integrated approach to strategic land use planning and social infrastructure planning.

It formed the first component of a two-component whole of Council planning process, the second component being the preparation of a new Planning Scheme for the Fraser Coast Regional Council.

The purpose of the Social Infrastructure Needs Assessment Study was to identify what facilities are needed now and in the next 20 years, and in turn to inform Council’s planning processes.

The process adopted for undertaking the needs assessment was that outlined in the Implementation Guideline No 5 to the SEQ Regional Plan – Social Infrastructure Planning Guidelines prepared by the Office of Urban Management (OUM) in 2007.

The recommendations and conclusions contained in the report were developed after detailed analysis of various sources of information, including:

• An audit of social infrastructure, including the number of facilities as well as the size and characteristics of each facility
• Review of the demographic profile of the area
• The implications of the settlement pattern
• The findings of previous studies
• Consideration of available consultation outcomes and
• The outcomes of the benchmarking analysis.

Recommendations made for the Sustainable Growth Strategy included:

• Development of regional social infrastructure
• Reinforcement of the hierarchy of local and district centres in urban areas so that community facilities and services are focussed in urban activity centres rather than scattered across the city
• Increased utilisation of the current social infrastructure capacity
• Reinforcement of hinterland district centres within infrastructure constraints
• Development of new service models for rural residential /village areas and
• Creation of ‘Age-Friendly Neighbourhoods’ to help house the future aged population.

Gympie Planning Scheme Study Community Infrastructure Needs Assessment

The overall aim of the Gympie Regional Council (GRC) – Planning Scheme Study 2009 was to prepare additional information to supplement other existing GRC studies and knowledge. The main objective was to deliver a package of investigations in an integrated way that was clearly focussed on the GRC program and budget imperatives, and the likely contents of the Statement of Proposals and ultimately the Planning Scheme and Priority Infrastructure Plan.

Briggs & Mortar Pty Ltd was contracted to prepare the Community Infrastructure Needs Assessment. As part of the needs assessment process, the findings of the demographic profile, literature review and benchmarking analysis and previous consultation outcomes were combined to determine what facilities were needed now and in the next 20 years.

The study was conducted in accordance with Implementation Guideline No 5 to the SEQ Regional Plan – Social Infrastructure Planning Guidelines. Comparative rates of provision (or ‘benchmarks’) were used as only one factor in determining the need for new facilities. Other factors that were considered included demography, capacity of existing facilities, social and economic disadvantage and other local issues.

In particular in the Gympie context, the needs of different target groups were considered throughout the assessment process, taking into consideration the socio-demographic composition and settlement type and patterns in the Gympie Regional Council Area, to determine locally appropriate Desired Standards of Service. The work undertaken was used both for the Draft Planning Scheme and potentially in the preparation of a Priority Infrastructure Plan for Community Facilities Land.