Under Queensland’s Planning Act 2016, all development falls into one of three categories: prohibited, assessable or accepted. Assessable development needs a development approval before it can happen, accepted development needs neither an application nor an approval, and for prohibited development no application may be made at all.
General informationThis page explains the categories as the Planning Act 2016 and the Queensland Government’s categories of assessment paper describe them, as at October 2026. It is not planning or legal advice for any project. Each council sets its own requirements for accepted development, and the Queensland Government suggests checking with your local government before any work or change to a property begins.
What the Act counts as development
The categories sort “development”, and the Act means five kinds of activity by it. The Queensland Government’s planning website lists them this way:
- Reconfiguring a lot: subdividing land, or other changes such as merging lots or moving boundaries.
- Making a material change of use: putting a building, structure or land to a new use, or using it more intensively.
- Carrying out building work, such as building a house or a garage or extending a structure.
- Carrying out operational work, which changes the land itself: earthworks or clearing vegetation, for example.
- Carrying out plumbing and drainage work, which local governments generally manage under the Plumbing and Drainage Act 2018.
Three ways from the first gate
Each category sends a proposal somewhere different. Two of them settle the matter before any application exists.
Accepted
No application and no approval are needed. The planning paper describes this development as generally low risk and in keeping with what is planned for the area. Some of it must still meet requirements set by the council or by another state agency.
Assessable
An approval is needed before the development can happen. A development application is lodged with the assessment manager, usually the local government, which assesses and decides it.
Prohibited
No development application may be made. The planning paper says only the state government can declare development prohibited, and it does so in the Planning Regulation 2017.
One rule in the Act sets a default: where no categorising instrument puts a particular development in a category, that development is accepted development (section 44(6)).
Who sets the categories
The Act calls the documents that do the sorting “categorising instruments”. For assessable development, the same instrument also states which category of assessment applies.
The work is split between two levels of government. The state sets the categories of development, and local governments apply them through their planning schemes. Local government is generally responsible for regulating land use and new development, and does most of the assessment in its own area. Where the state becomes involved, the Planning Regulation 2017 sets the category.
Code or impact assessment
Assessable development is assessed in one of two ways: code assessment or impact assessment. The planning paper says code assessment helps expected development go ahead without undue delay. Impact assessment generally applies to proposals that may affect the amenity of neighbouring land uses.
| Question | Code assessment | Impact assessment |
|---|---|---|
| Assessed against | Only the assessment benchmarks in a categorising instrument, and any matters a regulation prescribes. | The same benchmarks and prescribed matters, and it may also weigh any other relevant matter, such as planning need. |
| What is left out | Anything not clearly expressed in the code: the planning paper calls this “bounded code assessment”. | A person’s personal circumstances, financial or otherwise, which are not planning need. |
| Public notification | Not required, unless the application includes a variation request. | Required, and carried out by the applicant to ask the local community for feedback. |
| The decision | Must approve to the extent the development complies with all the benchmarks; may refuse for non-compliance only if conditions cannot achieve compliance. | Approve all or part, approve all or part with conditions, or refuse. |
For most applications, the assessment manager must publish the reasons for its decision. The difference between the two shows again after the decision: a submitter who made a properly made submission on an impact assessable application can appeal the decision in the Planning and Environment Court.
An exemption certificate
There is one way past the assessable category without an approval. Under section 46, a development approval is not needed for assessable development if there is an exemption certificate for it. The planning website says a certificate may be issued in limited circumstances: where a proposal has been categorised inappropriately, or where its effect is considered inconsequential.
The certificate comes from the local government if it would be the assessment manager for that development alone; otherwise it comes from the chief executive.
Which version of the rules applies
Instruments can change while an application waits. The Act fixes the moment that counts: the assessment manager assesses an application against the instruments as they stood when the application was properly made. If an instrument is amended or replaced before the decision, the assessment manager may give the new version the weight it considers appropriate (section 45(8)).
Where a state interest is involved, the state may also take part, either as the assessment manager or as a referral agency through the State Assessment and Referral Agency. When the state assesses an application, it uses the State Development Assessment Provisions (SDAP). Referral has its own guide, and the five parts every application passes through come next.