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Walkerville Residential Code

As part of the State Government's roll-out of the Residential Development Code in 2009, new dwellings were designated as complying development in certain areas and under certain circumstances. However, before this occurred, the Minister for Urban Development and Planning initiated a process whereby councils could request that specific areas be excluded from the full operation of the Code.

The preliminary step in the exclusion process involved the identification of potential character areas based on 'desk-top' investigation and addressing specific criteria relating to the character of the built form. It was also necessary to demonstrate that the predominant built form was constructed before 1940 and that a target of 50-70% for complying development would be met.

Working for the Town of Walkerville, URPS undertook a broad review of the streetscape character of the Council's area in conjunction with the finalisation of the General and Residential DPA. This review indicated that there are a number of areas in Gilberton, Walkerville and Vale Park which could qualify for exclusion from the full operation of the Code. Using the knowledge gained through our development assessment and policy experience at Walkerville, we were able to effectively and efficiently recommend a number of structural changes to the Development Plan to ensure that the roll-out of the Code matched the new policy framework, protected important streetscape character, and was easy to interpret.

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."