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Residential

Much of our work at URPS involves the facilitation of residential development, ranging from single storey, detached houses through to high density, multi-storey buildings. There are three 'classes' of development that affect the way an application for housing is handled by a Council or the Development Assessment Commission (DAC):

  • Complying Development - this type of development clearly meets the criteria listed in the Development Plan or Development Regulations and must be approved by the relevant Council or DAC.
  • On-Merit Development - this type of development includes all forms of development not identified as complying or non-complying. This accounts for most forms of development, which must be assessed 'on their merit' having regard to all the provisions of the Development Plan (which are unique to individual Council areas).
  • Non-Complying Development - Non-Complying Development includes specific types of development which are generally considered to be undesirable in certain locations (e.g. housing in a heavy industry zone). Rather than being prohibited, there is a more complex process for the assessment of non-complying development in special cases where a proposal has substantial merit.

URPS specialises in planning associated with on-merit and non-complying housing development proposals, by liaising with the relevant local councils and government agencies, and preparing the necessary planning reports. We also prepare and respond to written and verbal representations regarding new development proposals that are subject to Category 2 and Category 3 public notifications.

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."