Environmental offsets

Environmental offsets are measures taken to compensate for negative environmental impacts caused by a development.

You may need to provide environmental offsets for your development under the Environmental Offsets Act 2014.  

These could relate to environmental consequences of the project, such as matters of local environmental significance (MLES).

Council must agree to these environmental offsets before any vegetation is cleared. This is accordance with the:

• Environmental Offsets Act 2014
  
• Queensland Environmental Offsets Policy
  
• Offsets planning scheme policy.

You can choose to deliver the environmental offsets as a financial settlement offset or a proponent-driven offset.

Financial offsets

If you choose financial offsets, Council will send you an invoice for payment. To have an invoice generated, you must submit the following to the Specialist Services team:

• the application reference number of the development approval, the development approval condition that requires environmental offsets and full site address
  
• payee information (the name to appear on the invoice, postal address, email contact and invoice amount)
  
• type of environmental offset (MLES or koala) and the area of environmental offsets
  
• offset calculation report
  
• a completed 'Application for a Notice of Election Form', which you can download from the Queensland Government website.

Proponent-driven offsets

If you choose proponent-driven offsets, submit a Council compliance assessment application.

Your application will be assessed in accordance with the conditions of the:

• development approval
  
• Environmental Offsets Act 2014
  
• Offsets Planning Scheme Policy.