What is an overlay?

Overlays are maps that identify particular areas that may be sensitive to the effects of development, contain valuable resources, constrain land or present opportunities for development.

What are the Council overlays and what does each overlay mean?

The Gladstone Region has 13 overlay maps in total, and the purpose or each overlay and code is as follows:

1. Acid sulfate soils - to avoid or manage the risks associated with the disturbance of acid sulfate soils.

2. Airport environs - to protect the ongoing operation of Gladstone’s strategic airport and aviation facilities. To achieve this, the location and height of development is controlled.

3. Biodiversity - to protect important natural areas – trees, wildlife and ecosystems.

4. Bushfire hazard - identifies areas that might be at risk from bushfire and make sure any risk to life, property and the environment can be avoided or managed.

5. Coastal hazards - identifies areas that are vulnerable to changes in the coastline – from erosion, coastal flooding (storm tide inundation) and the effects of sea level rise, to protect people and property from these risks.

6. Extractive resources and minerals - identifies areas needed for mining or quarrying, to make sure sensitive uses, like residential areas, are not too close.

7. Flood hazard overlay - identifies areas that are vulnerable to flood risks to protect people, property, the environment and economic activity from flood impacts.

8. Hazardous activities overlay - to protect community health, safety and sensitive land uses, like residential development, from the impacts of former landfill sites, former mining activities and contaminated land.

9. Heritage - identifies heritage places throughout the Gladstone region to ensure these are conserved and protected for present and future communities.

10. Regional infrastructure - Identifies infrastructure such as substations and powerlines in order to protect it from future development that can affect how it operates.

11. Scenic amenity - identifies areas of high scenic amenity to ensure future development protects these important values.

12. Steep land - The purpose of the Steep land overlay code is to:

• ensure people, development and hazardous materials are protected from landslide; and
• minimise the potential for environmental degradation.

13. Water resource catchment - The purpose of the Water resource catchment overlay code is to protect the water entering Lake Awoonga and its catchment and water bores at Agnes Water, Miriam Vale and Bororen.

How can I find out if my property is affected by an overlay?

An overlay may apply to all or part of your property. Your property may also be affected by more than one overlay. You can find out whether your property is affected by an overlay by checking Council’s interactive mapping tool online and creating a planning scheme report for your property.

To do this click on the planning scheme report button under the home tab, select your property on the map and download the report.

What effect will an overlay have on my property and future building work or development?

Overlays on a site may mean that future building work or development needs to get a planning approval through a ‘development application’. This is so that Council can assess whether the work will need to be designed in a certain way.

Depending on the overlay, in some cases you will be protecting your development from impacts (such as a house in a flood overlay) , and in other cases you will be making sure your development does not impact on the overlay (such as a house in a biodiversity overlay).

Most overlays have a code that lists the criteria for response in your development application. You can view the overlay codes in Part 8 of the Gladstone Regional Council Planning Scheme. All information relating to the overlays affecting your site should be provided in your development application.

To further understand how an overlay can impact proposed development on your property, contact Council Council on (07) 4970 0700 or info@gladstone.qld.gov.au.

What are zones?

A zone is a way of organising where certain development can be established to make sure that residential areas are protected from noise and other amenity impacts, and to help create vibrant townships and suburban centres.

Zones are mapped and they come with requirements for development. You can view the zone codes in Part 6 of the Gladstone Planning Scheme.

How do overlays affect development assessment?

An overlay only applies to development proposals within the area covered by the overlay and does not impact on existing lawful uses carried out on your property. This is shown in the table below.

Your guide to navigating the Gladstone Planning Scheme

Zone	We would generally support	We will consider	We would prefer not to see
Low Density Residential zone	Residential development at a low density scale like dwelling houses and dual occupancies.	Neighbourhood scale retail, or important infrastructure like emergency services.	Retail, industry, or large scale development that generates traffic and impacts on residential amenity.
Low-medium Density Residential zone	Residential development at a low-medium density scale like dwelling houses and town houses.	Neighbourhood scale retail, or important infrastructure like emergency services.	Retail, industry, or large scale developments that generate traffic and impact residential amenity.
Centre zone	A mix of business, retail, community, entertainment, cultural and residential activities.	Medium scale retail, commercial, and community activities that do not compete with the Gladstone CBD.	Large industry, warehouse or rural uses which require significant land area or involve dangerous goods production or storage.
Rural zone	Cropping, animal husbandry, grazing, animal keeping and other primary production activities.	Activities like outdoor recreation and farm tourism that complement the rural area.	Retail, industry, residential subdivision, or large scale development.
Rural residential zone	Residential development at a very low density.	Small scale non-residential activities like home businesses, small scale tourist uses, or small scale horticulture.	Retail, industry, or large scale development, including small lot residential subdivisions.
Township	Residential, retail, business, education, community purpose, recreation and open space that support the needs of the local community and surrounding hinterland areas.	Highway services or rural services and small scale tourist development, where consistent with the township character.	Large industry, warehouse or rural uses which require significant land area or involve dangerous goods production or storage.

Contact Council on (07) 4970 0700 or info@gladstone.qld.gov.au for further assistance.
 

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