The State Planning Commission's (SPC) proposed state-wide Planning and Design Code for South Australia has been a controversial issue during the past few months, with people unsure about how the changes will affect their suburbs.
Two rounds of consultation were undertaken by the State Government on the draft Planning and Design Code (Code):
- 1 October 2019 - 28 February 2020
- 4 November 2020 - 18 December 2020.
Most recently, the second round of consultation sought to consult on the draft Code, which included several key changes from round one feedback. These changes included:
- more localised policy to reflect neighbourhood characteristics
- inclusion of existing Contributory Items as ‘Representative Buildings’
- residential infill policy
- new greenfield and master planned neighbourhoods on urban fringe
- establishment of strategic innovation zones to support new investment
- policy for trees including incentives for tree planting and water sensitive urban design
- policy on flooding and related mapping.
You can read Council's most recent submission here
You can also download a fact sheet which summarises some concerns.
The implementation date for the final Code has changed over the course of the planning reform and is now anticipated to be within the first quarter of 2021.
What will the new Code mean?
The Code will inform the type of development that can be built in your suburb, how many storeys, setbacks, car parking spaces and green space - as well as many other issues related to land use and built form.
Our Council has been informing residents about what the new Code is likely to mean, with the understanding that it is not easy to understand and, as a result, staff have drafted a number of fact sheets to summarise information. These fact sheets are not conclusive as the Code has not been formalised. If you are unsure about the zoning of your property, you can search westmaps or the SA Planning and Property Atlas
Our Council has been providing feedback to PlanSA about what we'd like to see for West Torrens as we move forward. Below are summaries of our feedback to the State Government (note, this does not mean that our feedback will be taken into consideration in the final Planning and Design Code).
