New 30-year Plan for Adelaide
As part of the Planning Reforms 2008 package, the Government will develop detailed new Regional Plans for all areas of the State, including a 30-year Plan for Adelaide.
The Plan for Adelaide will be developed through a series of seven regional partnerships with local councils, industry and state agencies over the next 12 months. This process will provide councils the genuine opportunity to undertake strategic planning on a basis beyond their own council area.
A Draft Plan will be released during 2009 for community comment, before the Plan is finalised.
Plan for Adelaide
It is projected that the combined attraction of job opportunities and lifestyle will see up to 400,000 additional people living in South Australia over the next 25-30 years.
That will take our population from 1.6 million in 2008, to about two million people by the mid-2030s (or possibly earlier, if current high population growth contuinues).
At the same time we will experience the significant ageing of our existing population, with an increased demand for smaller homes and accommodation for the elderly.
Together, population growth and ageing are expected to create a demand for up to an additional 290,000 dwellings across South Australia over that timeframe.
The bulk of this demand is expected to occur in the Adelaide region and its surrounds, creating a need for up to 245,000 additional dwellings.
To manage this demand successfully we must put in place a farsighted plan to guide the next 30 years of growth and development.
We must develop a new 30 year Plan for Adelaide.
The new plan must cover not just the metropolitan area as we now know it, but the Greater Adelaide area – that is, from metropolitan Adelaide down to Victor Harbor in the south, up to the Barossa in the north, and across to Murray Bridge in the east. This area covers 26 councils.
It must be an integrated Plan, but a Plan which also recognises regional differences. That’s why the Plan for Adelaide will be built around seven distinct regions within the Greater Adelaide area – Western Adelaide, Northern Adelaide, Eastern Adelaide, Southern Adelaide, Adelaide Hills, the Barossa Region and the Fleurieu Region.
Each of these regions will have their own distinct part to play in Greater Adelaide’s future development. Each will have targets and plans for population, housing and employment lands, based on population projections, rates of household formation, specific industry strategies and council strategic plans. Each will also have targets and strategies for water and energy efficiency, and housing affordability.
Each region within the Plan for Adelaide will also need to plan for the accommodation of older South Australians. This will include suitable smaller homes in neighbourhoods, housing in ‘retirement’ style groupings, and provision for elderly South Australians in nursing home style accommodation.
And each of the seven Regions will identify agreed protected conservation and agriculture/horticulture areas, Growth Precincts for major land releases and redevelopment projects, and land subject to further investigation. There will be clear recognition that there will be differences in outcomes across the regions, depending on their nature.
The Government will lead the collaborations and ensure the Plans are consistent in format and process. Once finalised, they will be brought together into an integrated Plan for Adelaide.
Key features of the Plan for Adelaide
The Plan for Adelaide will build on the 2008-09 State Budget, with its bold program of investment in modern, advanced transportation for Adelaide.
Under that program, $2 billion will be invested in the State’s public transport system over the next decade, to extend the tramline through the city to West Lakes, Port Adelaide and Semaphore, to electrify the major northern and southern rail lines, and put many more buses on busy routes.
Over the next four years, nearly $650 million will be spent on the first stage of a program to modernise our rail and light-rail transport infrastructure, specifically to:
- Electrify the Noarlunga and Outer Harbor rail lines
- Extend the tramline to the Entertainment Centre
- Re-sleeper the Gawler line in advance of electrification, and
- Purchase new light-rail vehicles.
More than $10 billion in capital projects will be invested across the public sector for the next four years.
With that commitment mapped out, we are setting down a new vision for the growth and development of Adelaide over the next three decades, built around the following key features:
