We are committed to ensuring stakeholders are enabled to adopt and utilise the new system as it is progressively implemented. To help manage the program and work together for this outcome, we are growing our Change Management team, who have a focus on the people side of change. Therese McNicol has recently joined us and is heading up the team, building on the work of Sally Jenkin. The expanding team will include additional engagement and learning specialist support.

Attached to this month's newsletter is a calendar of key documents and instruments being released this year. Highlights of this include the launch of the Charter this month, draft State Planning Policies by the middle of the year, which will inform the release of the draft Planning and Design Code for statutory consultation in February 2019. Draft Regulations for the Accredited Professionals Scheme will also be released in the coming months, following closure of comments on the draft Discussion paper at the end of April.

Details are also provided below about the work being done to progress the P&D Code development and opportunities for involvement. The recently released Code Blueprint, available on the Portal also provides details on this.

I hope the calendar will assist with your resource planning and enable you to identify in advance what you might want to get involved in, or just keep a watching brief.

Notably, the release of draft documents have been planned to avoid the local government caretaker period commencing on 18 September.

Thanks for your continued support as we work together to implement our new planning and development system..

Sally Smith
General Manager, Planning and Development

At this forum, the Commission released its Blueprint to the new SA Planning and Design Code. The Blueprint covers a range of policy reform priorities for the Commission as follows

• Housing diversity (including ageing, affordability, mix, etc)
• Character and heritage
• Economic and industrial land utilisation, and emerging industries
• Metropolitan growth, land supply, and managing our urban and rural interface
• Green Infrastructure and environmental resilience
• Design within the planning system
• Car parking including sustainable mobility and the impact of technology.

Members of the Commission also attended a Car Parking Summit at which two guest speakers spoke of the experiences they had interstate in relation to Car Parking as a planning issue.

Finally, I was able to visit Kangaroo Island and meet with various officers in important positions, including the Commissioner for Kangaroo Island and in addition, the Mayor and CEO of the Council, the Regional Manager of DEWNR, the Chair of Tourism, the Chair of Kangaroo Island Food & Wine, the Chair of Agriculture in Kangaroo Island and the Chair of Business in Kangaroo Island.  The group visited some of the current developments in Kangaroo Island.

I was accompanied on this visit by Wayne Hutchinson, Manager Development Policy and Assessment.

Tim Anderson QC
Commission Chair

click image to enlarge

Check out our newly created Planning System Illustration (above) that shows the ten key ways we are improving South Australia’s planning and development system by 2020.

Our new 21st century planning system includes a fresh focus across the state on high quality design for our buildings and public spaces, equitable infrastructure planning, protection for our natural assets and better community engagement on planning rules.

And, take a look at our Planning Reform Calendar to keep ahead of milestones on the journey to 2020, public consultation periods and when new discussion documents, tools and guidance are being released.

Highlights include the launch of a new Community Engagement Charter this month, the release of the proposed planning vision and priorities by the middle of this year, and the release of the proposed state-wide planning rulebook in February 2019. There’s lots more happening in the future so take a look!

The Minister for Planning approved the charter following extensive consultation.

Our state’s independent principal planning body will use the Charter it to ensure great community engagement is at the heart of creating the planning vision and priorities for our state, and the new state-wide planning rulebook. 

This guide will support local councils to meet these new standards for community engagement as they start to apply the state’s new planning rules from 2019 in local areas. Later this year, a practical toolbox and guidance on community engagement evaluation will also be provided to local councils.

Thursday, 10 May, 2.00 pm – 5.00 pm
An update on the modernisation of South Australia’s planning system, and collaborative discussion about our future planning vision and priorities for our state - our new State Planning Policies.

Thursday, 17 May, 2.00 pm – 5.00 pm
Collaborative discussion on future transport specifically integrated movement systems, and our natural resources & environment.

Thursday, 24 May, 2.00 pm – 5.00 pm
Collaborative discussion on people & the future of our neighbourhoods, productivity and economy.

As part of our modernisation of the whole planning system, a new ‘Accredited Professionals Scheme’ is being created to ensure quality service and professional advice in assessing applications for new developments in our state.

The scheme will give individuals and businesses greater confidence in the planning and building surveying professionals that make development decisions.

We would love to hear your views on the proposals for this scheme. Consultation closes this Monday 30 April so please view the discussion paper and have your say before then!

For more information, check out our recently released short video that features interviews with SA’s Young Planner of the Year, metro and regional planners and other respected professionals across our planning community.

Or watch the video streams of Discussion Paper Workshops that took place recently on how the accreditation scheme can work best and on creating a Continuing Professional Development programme. The workshops involved a wide range of people and organisations, and included some great points, comments and discussions.

By 2020, some of the exciting features of the ePlanning ‘one stop shop’ for everyone in South Australia will include a quick and easy service for lodging, monitoring and tracking all development applications across the state, fast electronic decision notices, and free mapping services, guides and data!

For more information on ePlanning, please visit the SA Planning Portal. This page is being updated over the next couple of weeks with more information so please check back soon!

The groups will comprise of respected planning practitioners from a range of backgrounds with experience in the respective category and have been drawn from the Expression of Interest (EOI) process conducted last year.

If you missed the EOI registration last year, and would like to share your individual knowledge and expertise as a professional within the planning and development industry, you are invited to register at dpti.planningengagement@sa.gov.au.

This follows the release of The Blueprint for South Australia’s Planning and Design Code introductory paper last month, and will be closely followed by the release of the Code Technical Paper, ‘Planning and Design Code – How it will work’ in May.

Earlier this year, the State Government initiated a wholesale review of car parking in local streets across metropolitan Adelaide and committed to work closely with local councils to identify the causes of any parking problems and consider potential solutions.

Following a wide ranging community consultation, this month, DPTI also held a Car Parking Summit attended by inner metro councils and key industry groups to discuss key car parking policy impacts, perceptions and trends across the country.

A summary of what we heard will be available shortly on the SA Planning Portal. The findings of the review will inform the preparation of the state’s new planning rulebook – the Planning and Design Code and, or existing development plans.

On 2 April, The Advertiser published an article by Renato Costello called ‘Cracking the Code’ on the reform of the South Australian Planning System.

The article discussed the benefits of improved consistency and certainty with the new Planning and Design Code and its benefits for better and clearer development assessment.

Just in case you missed this positive news item, we've reprinted it here.

Horticultural producers across South Australia can improve their fruit quality and yields, thanks to the introduction of the Development (Horticultural Netting) Variations Regulations 2018.

New regulations, in operation from 8 April, enable commercial producers to install netting without the need for planning consent through councils, and protect their crops from damage incurred by birds, flying foxes, as well as hail, sun and wind burn.

This change will save time and money to businesses, for netting systems which are now considered a fundamental part of modern horticulture production.

This information sheet explains when planning consent is not required for commercial horticulture netting.

The SA Planning Portal now contains more information relating to building. The new building industry information includes a Building Industry tab and a State Planning Commission webpage for the Building Committee.

We would also welcome and value your feedback which we will use to continually make further enhancements. Please email any feedback to us at DPTI.PDBuildingBranch@sa.gov.au.

Have your say on the Accredited Professionals Scheme proposals before Monday, 30 April 2018. We are keen to hear your comments - please view the discussion paper and have your say.

Please have your say on Future Land Use Definitions and Classes - the deadline has been extended until 4 May 2018.

We would love to hear any stories or news you may have in the planning and development space – please submit any news which could be of interest to the Engagement, Education and Communication team.