Brisbane City Council's 'City Plan 2014' (and its earlier versions) has a serious focus on preserving all buildings with 'traditional building character', with particular focus on dwellings that were built pre-1947 and almost strict protection against demolition or even renovation of dwellings that were built pre-1911.
Apart from the general constraint against demolition and external renovation of those two classes of dwellings, a property owner will face even higher hurdles for approval of demolition or external renovation if the dwelling is within City Plan's 'traditional building character overlay' (a mapping over the whole of the Brisbane Council area).

In the traditional building character overlay, the street context of buildings needs to considered for the overlay to have utility. The recent Planning and Environment Court decision in Hawke v Brisbane City Council [2021] QPEC 16 considered this issue in detail.
The Court upheld an appeal against Council's refusal of a "Code Assessable" development application seeking demolition of a pre-1947 house at 478 Flinders Parade, Brighton. The Court approved demolition on the grounds that wide-spread redevelopment of the street had sufficiently depleted the traditional building character of the street.

Applying Judge Robin's decision in Lynch vs Brisbane City Council, Judge Jones held that the traditional character of the street, not just the house the subject of the development application, must form part of the assessment.

"While it cannot be said in absolute terms ...that the street has no traditional character... its character is now one of a modern nature. To put it another way, it no longer has sufficient character "to be reasonably described as having traditional character"," Judge Jones wrote in the judgment.
The decision is a further example of the assessment manager's discretion inherent in the Planning Act 2016, and confirmation that non-compliance with a relevant 'assessment benchmark' in the planning instruments and controls in both Impact and Code Assessable development need not be determinative of the development proposal.

McCarthy Durie Lawyers has an experienced, highly respected team specialising in planning and development law, with particular expertise in land development, compensation and planning appeal disputes. We have successfully pursued development proposals for renovation and even demolition of pre-1947 and even pre-1911 dwellings.

With more than 30 years' experience in successfully pursuing or defending our clients' rights in both the Planning and Environment Court and Land Court jurisdictions, McCarthy Durie's expertise is second to none.

The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.