Any redevelopment within character areas must support the area's prevailing character.
Retain houses on site
All houses nominated as Neighbourhood Character Places in the Toowoomba Regional Planning Scheme must be retained on site. This means you need our approval to modify or move them, even if they're staying on the same site. You can only remove a house if it's considered structurally unsound or not economically viable to retain it, subject to our approval.
Consider local character elements
Consider local character elements in developing or redeveloping the Region's character areas.
Local character in Toowoomba's residential areas varies, but generally includes:
- small individual houses on individual lots
- predominantly lowset timber and tin dwellings
- mostly pre-World War II construction
- garden settings within lots
- a formal grid pattern of streets
- bluestone kerbing
- mature street trees
- a gently undulating topography
- strong vegetation and landscaping elements to individual homes, streets and the public realm.
Consider site factors, implications and desired outcomes
Residential block sizes in Toowoomba's character areas vary from less than 400m2 to more than 1200m2. All lots are generally rectangular, with depths varying to more than 60m.
Piecemeal redevelopment of these sites over time has led to a development pattern that has not always complemented the character of these areas or provided good site planning outcomes.
As a result of the deep lot configuration, buildings often run perpendicular to the street, overlooking side boundaries rather than addressing the street. This results in:
- long, thin, isolated buildings that don't relate to the streetscape
- privacy issues
- minimal usable private open space on the lot.
This outcome is undesirable for good city form and contrary to Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) principles.
We must make changes to achieve better built form outcomes. However, while good design principles agree that buildings should be pushed forward, the prevailing setbacks in character areas also need to be maintained (generally) to ensure consistency in the streetscape. To balance this, larger development proposals may need to amalgamate sites to achieve a sensible development form that has a high yield and overlooks the street.
Reorienting buildings towards the street also provides room for private open space at the rear of the site behind the buildings (whether that be on podiums or on the ground).