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Mt Lofty Social and Economic Profile

To assist with the preparation of its Regional NRM Plan, the Adelaide and Mount Lofty Ranges Natural Resources Management Board engaged URPS to prepare a social and economic profile. The aim of the profile was to provide a picture of the economic and social characteristics of the Board's region. In this way, the Board could ensure that objectives and actions contained in its Regional NRM Plan reflect local circumstances and address key economic and social aspects. By understanding the area's volunteering rate, educational attainment, income, internet use and age structure, for example, the Board can better target educational initiatives and community engagement activities. Similarly, by understanding the main economic drivers in the region, such as key industry sectors, the Board can better integrate NRM objectives and economic objectives. In preparing the profile, key demographic characteristics for the Council area were collected, compared and analysed. Summary mapping tables and graphs were then used to clearly present and explain information.

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."