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Victor Harbour Section 30

The population of Victor Harbor has been growing at rates far in excess of the state's average for the past 20 years. Council therefore embarked on an ambitious and comprehensive plan for its future which resulted in the preparation of the Urban Growth Management Strategy (UGMS). The strategy draws on a broad range of research into social and physical infrastructure, natural resource management and housing choice, to provide a road map for Victor Harbor's future.

URPS was commissioned to prepare a Development Plan Review to 'put legs' on the UGMS by articulating the review's land-use planning issues and implications and recommending a range of policy responses. These were developed and tested through consultations which included discussions with elected members, government agencies and the community.

Given that the majority of the land use recommendations of the UGMS must be implemented through changes to the Development Plan, it was important that the Section 30 Review 'mapped' out a process to align the Development Plan with the UGM.

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."