9. Planning incentives

9.1 Queensland's Green Door

The Green Door is an initiative that will accelerate sustainable and energy efficient design by fast-tracking sustainable developments through a "Green Door", using dedicated case managers and expanded Ministerial powers to speed up development decisions.

Under the new powers, the Planning Minister can direct Councils to fast-track approvals where a development exhibits exemplary sustainability features. The Minister can also give directions to state agencies in relation to sustainable developments.

9.2 Facilitating low-emission energy generation in commercial buildings

Commercial buildings and other large non-residential developments provide opportunities for on-site energy generation. The Queensland Government is investing $200,000 and partnering with key stakeholders to develop planning and assessment guidelines for on-site energy generation for use by the development industry and Local Government planners.

Planning guidelines for local councils and developers were expected to be in place at the middle of 2010. The planning and assessment guidelines that will assist:

• the development industry in preparing development proposals that involve low emission, on-site energy generation technologies; and
• Local Governments in assessing the development proposals.

9.3 Improved mapping for climate change responses

The Queensland Government is investing $8 million to develop improved mapping of the State to enhance our ability to adequately respond to climate change. The investment will be used primarily to develop a comprehensive high resolution computer Digital Elevation Model (DEM) to be used along the Queensland coast. (The Government, with support from the Commonwealth and Local Governments, is already investing $6.6. million to acquire data on the Queensland coast.)

The DEM can be used to produce three-dimensional maps of the natural and man-made features on the coast. These detailed maps can then be used to produce a virtual representation of coastal erosion, flooding and inundation under a range of climate change scenarios. By creating these detailed maps the computer based DEM will increase our understanding of the vulnerability of the coastline and enable us to better prepare our responses to sea level rise and inundation from storm surge.

With DEM, planners will be able to make more informed decisions when planning infrastructure and community developments.