South Australian Planning Minister John Rau has announced that the State Government will respond to increasing community concerns over urban sprawl in the Barossa and McLaren Vale regions by introducing measures to constrain further development.

 

Mr Rau said an interim Development Plan Amendment (DPA) had been introduced last year to prevent inappropriate development in these important regions for tourism, winemaking and agriculture, in advance of the passage of the Bills.

 

He said local councils and community members had raised a number of concerns about the interim DPA, particularly unintended restrictions on clearly appropriate development activities in the protection areas.

 

As a result, Mr Rau will introduce a new DPA as soon as possible, along with modified Bills to facilitate appropriate development while still protecting the regions from urban sprawl. This decision means public meetings planned for next month on the original DPA will no longer be necessary. The new DPA will trigger a new period of formal consultation with the community, led by the independent Development Policy Advisory Committee. In addition, everyone who made a submission on the original DPA will be invited to make a new submission.

 

The key changes to the DPA will:

  • enable development that would be reasonably expected to occur within the townships
  • enable housing on some existing allotments within the rural area, subject to appropriate design measures
  • enable development in the rural area that supports primary production
  •  prevent the further division of rural land for urban development.