Anything goes? Performance based planning and the slippery slope in Queensland planning law

Abstract

This article explores the first 20 years of performance-based planning in Queensland, how it has evolved and what it means for the interpretation of planning schemes. It describes how, over the past 20 years, planning law has become significantly more discretionary, whether or not that was the intention of the original drafters of the Integrated Planning Act 1997 (Qld) and whether or not that is the inevitable result of a system based on performance-based planning.It demonstrates this thesis with some case examples of discretionary, performance-based decision-making in practice. It also considers the role the sufficient grounds test has played in the evolution of this more discretionary system. It identifies the advantages and disadvantages of a highly discretionary, planning and development control regime. Overall, it argues that, more so than any of the procedural reforms to planning law, it is the evolution of PBP that has played into the hands of developers who wish to prioritise economic development over and above other planning goals.