Emissions & Hazardous Activities Code & Industry Thresholds Review

City of Logan
Queensland, Australia
  • Air quality
  • Planning

Challenge

Logan City Council (Council) is preparing a new planning scheme (Logan Plan 2025) to guide the future growth and development of Logan, located in South East Queensland. To inform the drafting phase of Logan Plan 2025. Council required a suitably qualified consultant to review the current Management of Emissions and Hazardous Activities code, and provide recommendations to shape future policy.

Land to support industry and employment in the city is a significant priority for Council. Many industrial and other land uses have the potential to produce off-site impacts and the planning scheme plays an important role in ensuring these risks are appropriately managed.

Solution

Our team was appointed to review the Management of Emissions and Hazardous Activities code, covering performance and acceptable outcomes for air, noise and odour pollution, flammable and combustible liquids and hazardous chemicals, and its effectiveness and alignment within the current existing Logan Planning Scheme 2015.

An initial inception meeting with Council was undertaken to determine objectives and methodology of the project. Our team undertook detailed reviews of the Management of Emissions and Hazardous Activities code by senior air quality, noise and planning specialists within SLR. Emission and immission standards covering noise, air, light, radiation and vibration were assessed, with amenity benchmarking also forming part of the review. A literature review was performed to identify trends in emerging industries and technologies that should be considered in developing Logan Plan 2025.Based on these reviews, recommendations were provided to Council on any limitations identified in the existing planning scheme policy and codes associated with the environmental impacts of industrial activities, including updates to ensure consistency with current legislation and guidelines and other suggested improvements.

Draft findings were collated and recommendations were presented to Council for consideration.

Impact

The review and report delivered by our team provided Council with recommendations for improvements to the current scheme and assisted in informing the development of the new Logan Plan 2025.