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Commercial

Commercial development is fundamental to the successful operation of our economy. The agglomeration of interrelated commercial activities is desirable to achieve economies of scale in business transactions and transport. However, many Development Plans do not always incorporate planning policy that keeps pace with the changing needs of commercial development and its desired location.

For example, many local centres are becoming unviable as the community has a preference for the variety of services and convenience offered by higher order centres. Bulky goods developments are different again in that they need to be located on large parcels of land with exposure to high traffic volumes on arterial roads.

At URPS, our considerable experience in the facilitation of large and small scale commercial developments, be they retail, offices, consulting rooms or light industry, is supported by our expertise in retail studies and centre/bulky goods Development Plan Amendments. This means that our understanding of macro-level planning issues around commercial development enhances our service in managing micro-level planning issues associated with commercial developments, including parking, safety and security, noise, and built form.

Whether it is a small consulting room for an individual doctor or a 20 000 square metre shopping centre, we have the expertise to facilitate a smooth approval process.

The Minister for Urban Development & Planning released the Ministerial Mount Barker Urban Growth Development Plan Amendment (DPA) in June 2010 for public consultation. This DPA proposes to rezone approximately 1300 hectares of rural land on the edges of Mt Barker and Nairne for residential and light industrial use.

With the aim of ensuring that its community was well informed and empowered to comment on the Ministerial DPA, the District Council of Mt Barker engaged URPS to run a series of information sessions for the local community. These six sessions were extremely well attended, with more than 300 people able to hear about and ask questions regarding the Ministerial DPA process and how to go about getting involved in this part of the planning system.

In a letter to the editor of the Mt Barker Courier, Jean Lovell of Nairne said that "Mt Barker Council is to be congratulated for its commitment to proper community consultation" and that URPS was "highly professional and responded in detail to questions in an articulate, honest and informed manner".

This is evidence of the success of these types of community information sessions and the goodwill and engagement that Mt Barker Council has fostered with its community through the process. We also believe that this type of process leads to informed and valuable input from the community to key planning initiatives such as this Ministerial DPA."