Planning scheme amendment to boost RV tourism

At today’s ordinary meeting councillors voted to amend the Mackay Region Planning Scheme.

The amendment will provide opportunities for small-scale, self-contained recreational vehicle (RV) grounds to establish in appropriate locations as new facilities or within existing tourist parks.

Mayor Greg Williamson said the amendment would allow for RV grounds, with 10 sites or less, to be established without the need for a development application.

“As long as the proposed site meets all the requirements, the applicant will not need a planning approval from council to cater for up to 10 self-contained recreational vehicles,” Cr Williamson said.

Self-contained vehicles are vehicles that have on-board cooking and sleeping facilities and can hold fresh water and store greywater and/or blackwater.

Cr Williamson said the camping market contributed over $7 billion annually to the Australian economy and that figure was anticipated to continue to rise.

“There are more than 615,000 campervan and caravans registered in Australia and users of those vehicles use a range of accommodation types,” he said.

“An extensive consultation period and a regulatory review into camping choices identified a real opportunity to capture a greater share of the market by facilitating these kinds of low-cost options for travellers.

“Council is not proposing to introduce any council-operated RV sites, instead this amendment will support private sector growth by reducing red tape for existing tourism providers and creating opportunities around our nature-based tourism assets.

“The flow-on economic benefits for our local tourism industry are expected to be substantial.”

The amendment will commence as part of Version 3.0 of the Mackay Region Planning Scheme 2017 on February 3, 2020.