SEQ 2001, RPAG, PROP and other Alphabet Soup

Abstract

The lid of Pandora's Box has been lifted. Queensland, which takes pride in being different, is considering adopting a relatively conventional planning system — and in the process is raising issues which might never be adequately resolved. Until now, development in Queensland has been largely buffered against intervention by State planners, contributions towards social facilities and consultation with the public but all this could be about to change. In December 1990, a meeting at Parliament House convened by the then Minister for Housing and Local Government, Hon Tom Burns, set in train a process to investigate South East Queensland's needs for the coming decades — SEQ 2001. A Regional Planning Advisory Group (RPAG) was established which utilised a number of task forces and public consultation to canvass a wide range of topics while RPAG itself produced a ‘preferred pattern of urban development’ (PROP) and a complementary set of proposals for institutional change. The task force findings and the draft regional outline plan were presented to the public in July 1993 in a set of 19 reports with a request for comments by October 1993.