Crest at Woodside is a great ‘new’ residential development in the Adelaide Hills.
The Federal Government used this 23 hectare site on the outskirts of Woodside for housing military and other families from the 1920s onwards.
It has all the hallmarks of a residential suburb. It includes some 81 existing dwellings and 57 vacant allotments in a suburban setting. The land is fully serviced with water, sewer, electricity etc. More houses are going up all the time.
Crest sits in the Productive Rural Landscape Zone – the wrong Zone for this residential area. The Federal Government never had to lodge a development application for the houses it built. As a result, no-one ever bothered to rezone the land to a more appropriate Residential/Neighbourhood Zone.
SCAP approved a non-complying division of the land for residential purposes in 2017 when Mill Hill Capital, now part of the Aspen Group, took over the land and began its rejuvenation.
Rezoning the land was discouraged while the Planning & Design Code was being created. Residential land division remains a Restricted form of development.
Aspen Group hasn’t been waiting for the planning system to catch up. It has poured significant capital into upgrading the stormwater management system, roads and parks across this broader site.
SCAP has now approved a land division application for 32 more residential allotments at Crest as a part a Restricted Development assessment process.
These planning approvals show the strength in the South Australian planning system that can flex to accommodate well designed development via a robust assessment process, even when circumstances are unusual.
The land division will create opportunity for housing at an attractive price for almost 100 people with an estimated $2.4 million in household income per annum. It will generate something like $11.5 million in construction work, 185 jobs and 243 other jobs across the economy over time.
It will also assist in addressing the shortage of developable allotments in the Woodside area, helping to bring the Hills alive.
