From September 1, all neighbours to a development application with a setback variation will be notified of the DA at the applicants expense and be given 14 days to respond.

The motion was brought by Mayor Mathew Hatcher as a Mayoral Report during the council meeting of Tuesday, August 9, after Robert and Sharon McBride presented at a public forum on July 19 about the issue.

The McBride's said they weren't notified about a neighbouring property in Surf Beach that had a setback of only four metres rather than the original 12.

They told councillors they had been asked to make changes to their property for privacy reasons.

Mayor Hatchers motion was for council to "notify in writing, adjoining owners of land the subject of a development application that does not apply the acceptable solution for setbacks in the relevant Development Control Plan and provide a period of 14 days for a submission to be made to Council".

The motion also noted the change would "increase the work of staff and have an adverse impact on the determination time of development applications", and stated the matter would be reconsidered as part of a review by the council of the Community Engagement Framework and Participation Plan.

Deputy Mayor Alison Worthington and Councillor Tubby Harrison moved an amendment to the final part of Mayor Hatcher's motion to reconsider the "triggers for advertising development applications" rather than the entire matter, but that was voted down 3-5.

During discussion, Council's director of planning and sustainability services, Lindsay Usher, said the new rules would require more notification letters and would result in more submissions on DAs both via the council's development portal and via telephone.

"Positive attempts could actually have a negative outcome," he said. "There will be more work, and DAs will take longer.

"It will have an impact on the amount of effort and the cost of each application because they will have to pay a notification fee."

Cr Hatcher said he knew there would be an increased workload, but it was "important as a council we continue to listen to the community and be versatile".