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Better Development Plan Program

The Department of Planning and Local Government (DPLG) engaged URPS to benchmark the Better Development Plans (BDP) program against interstate and New Zealand models. In general, we were pleased to find that SA's planning and development system and the BDP program specifically are at the forefront of planning reform in Australia. This is because:

  • there is an objective and 'whole of government' input into strategic plans, region by region, with legislated processes for community engagement
  • Development Plans are directly linked to Strategic Plans
  • all controls for the assessment of development are in Development Plans
  • Development Plans are appropriately confined to planning matters
  • there is a standardised format and use of language as part of BDP, making Development Plans easier to read and interpret
  • there is a rational and unambiguous mix of 'complying', 'merits-based' and 'non-complying' assessment
  • planning procedures are relatively simple and transparent.

As with most processes and programs there is always room for improvement, however, in comparison to the other states, the BDP program is underpinned by a sound set of principles and practices.

As part of the continuous improvement of the BDP Zone Modules, DPLG also engaged us to determine whether the existing land use zoning and the BDP Zone Modules adequately cater for employment-generating land uses. We found that every metropolitan council has an appropriate mix of centre and industry zones to cater for all types of employment land uses at present and therefore no new module was recommended. However we also found that there are gaps and considerable variation in the use of mixed use, light industry and commercial zones where some of the more innovative employment land uses may be best located.

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."