Thousands of Logan property owners are a step closer to escaping flood-planning restrictions—but a dispute over what residents should be told about rarer floods has left another part of council’s overhaul unresolved.
Logan City Council endorsed proposed planning changes on Tuesday 6 October that it says would remove more than half the properties from its flood overlay, while postponing a decision on changes to its public flood portal.
Mayor Jon Raven said in a statement after the meeting that community feedback and independent technical advice had informed the changes.
“Once the TLPI takes effect, we expect the overall number of properties in the flood mapping overlay to reduce by 56.8%,” he said.
A council spokesperson later put the proposed reduction at approximately 26,820 properties, from 47,225 to 20,405.
The proposed Temporary Local Planning Instrument will go to the Queensland Government for approval before returning to council for adoption.
The council expects it to take effect in early 2027.
The spokesperson said submission to the Queensland Government was expected “within the coming week”.
For owners, the changes could affect what they can build, extend or replace on their land.
The proposal would limit the flood overlay to the one-in-100 annual-chance flood event, remove rarer scenarios including the Probable Maximum Flood from that overlay and provide more flexibility for some development.
Open structures such as carports could be permitted in high-flow areas, subject to designs that do not obstruct floodwater.
Revised controls would also address areas where flooding is shallow.
However, the overall reduction includes a change in classification for some properties.
The meeting agenda identifies an approximate 30% increase in properties within the renamed Localised Flood Assessment Area—a category where further assessment may be needed to establish appropriate development.
Updated figures supplied by the spokesperson show the localised category increasing from about 2,474 properties to 3,370—approximately 896, or 36.2%.
The spokesperson said this was included in the overall 56.8% reduction.
During the meeting, council’s executive general manager of growth, economy and sustainability, David Hansen, explained the increase involved reconnecting mapped areas after removing the broader low-risk overlay.
“You’re swapping largely a group of people who were caught by one mechanism and putting them into another,” Mr Hansen told councillors.
Cr Raven told the meeting those properties were already mapped.
The spokesperson confirmed all properties entering the localised category were already mapped elsewhere in the overlay, predominantly around rural creek catchments.
The discussion did not establish whether every reclassified owner would face the same assessment requirements as before, or what additional investigations might cost.
The spokesperson said many owners’ everyday land use would be unaffected, but proposed development could require them to commission an assessment of flood depth, extent and speed.
Council did not clarify which owners would face assessment requirements they had not previously faced, or who would pay.
A separate disagreement emerged over how prominently rarer flood risks should appear in property reports.
Cr Raven favoured removing the one-in-2000 annual-chance flood scenario from the standard report while retaining it in the detailed report.
Councillors rejected the proposed flood portal changes before voting to defer the matter to 14 October.
Insurance costs also featured in Cr Raven’s opening address, when he called on insurers to respond to the proposed mapping changes.
“Logan families expect their premiums to reflect those changes,” he told the meeting.
However, removing a property from a planning overlay does not eliminate its physical flood risk or guarantee cheaper insurance.
“Flood risk is real and we should never pretend otherwise,” Cr Raven said in the same address.
Mr Hansen told councillors further creek investigations were expected to reach a conclusion around mid-2027, potentially informing another round of changes.
For now, the planning overhaul remains subject to state approval and council adoption, while the unresolved question of what residents will see in their property flood reports returns to the chamber on Wednesday 14 October.
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