Development (Development Plans) Amendment Act 2006

The Development (Development Plans) Amendment Act 2006 was passed by State Parliament on Wednesday 15 November 2006.

The Act amends the Development Act 1993 in the areas of Strategic Planning (including section 30 reviews), desired character policies, the Development Plan Amendment process and the Major Developments process.

Some aspects of these changes have been suspended from operation until a date to be advised (see below).

Legislation

To get a copy of the Act, visit the SA Legislation website:

Follow the debate

The Bill was debated on the following days (links to SA Parliament Hansard):

Summary of key elements

Strategic Planning (to come into effect on a date to be advised)

The Act creates a systematic approach to strategic planning, including planning for both physical and social infrastructure.

The Act requires the State Government to review the Planning Strategy for South Australia on at least a five yearly basis, and also requires Councils to undertake strategic planning on a five yearly basis.

The role of Section 30 Strategic Directions Reports is upgraded, and specific requirements outlined, including for infrastructure planning. Councils will be able to combine to undertake that process on a regional basis.

These State and Local strategic reviews will ensure that the full range of economic, environmental and social issues, including infrastructure planning, is set out. There is a requirement that the State Government provide Councils with information on infrastructure planning.

Each Council will be required to have a strategic planning and development policy committee to be involved in this process.

The Infrastructure planning associated with the Section 30 review will be taken into account during the Development Plan Amendment process. Additional infrastructure planning may also need to be undertaken at the DPA stage and this is acknowledged in the Act.

The Act includes consequential amendments to the Local Government Act 1999 to enable the “strategic planning” requirements of the Development Act and the “strategic management” requirements of the Local Government Act to be undertaken as a single and complementary exercise. This avoids a duplication of procedures under separate Acts of Parliament.

Desired character (came into effect on 27 September 2007)

The protection and enhancement of local neighbourhoods is important. Applicants have indicated that they require better information on the design standards by which their applications will be assessed. As a consequence, the Government through this Act strongly promotes the inclusion of desired character policies in Development Plans (Section 23).

The separate issue of Local Heritage listing in Development Plans is to be included in a Development (Local Heritage) Amendment Bill 2006 which is proposed to be introduced later this year.

Development Plan Amendment Process (came into effect on 27 September 2007)

The Act sets out the revised procedures by which Councils are to prepare and consult on proposed amendments to the Development Plan for the area.

The Act replaces the existing term ‘Plan Amendment Reports’ (or PARs, as they are known) with the term ‘Development Plan Amendment’ (DPA), in order to more accurately reflect the role of the documents being released for public consultation.

The Act provides three clear procedural paths to amend Development Plans:

  • Process A relates to complex controversial matters with separate agency and public consultation.
  • Process B relates to most policy amendments where the key strategic issues are clearly defined and agreed to by the Council and the Minister. Process B involves simultaneous agency and public consultation (for a period of two months) and as such, the process will be shorter than that of Process A.
  • Process C is the same as Process B, however it enables the community consultation process to be shortened to one calendar month rather than two but on the proviso that every property owner affected by the proposed changes is notified by direct mail of the proposed DPA.

Agreement of Process A, B or C will be reached by the Minister and the Council for each DPA at the initial Statement of Intent stage.

DPA Timeliness (came into effect on 27 September 2007)

The Act requires the ERD Committee of Parliament be provided with a table showing the agreed timetable for each DPA process as set out in the Statement of Intent, and the actual time taken. This will enable the ERD Committee as well as the Minister to monitor the progress of DPAs.

The Act also enables the Minister to have an independent investigator to examine the policy review processes of a Council if there are consistent ongoing delays in the policy review provisions of the Act. These provisions mirror the current provisions of Section 45A of the Act relating to the investigation of development assessment procedures of councils.

Major Development proposals (came into effect on 14 December 2006)

This Act repeals the provision requiring the release an Issues Paper prior to the preparation of guidelines for assessing a declared major development proposal. The three to six week public consultation period for the different forms of major development assessment (EIS, PER, DR) remains unchanged.

The role of the Major Developments Panel to determine the level of detailed environmental assessment required (EIS, PER or DR) for a major development proposal and to issue guidelines to the proponent for that assessment is incorporated into the responsibilities of the Development Assessment Commission (DAC). The requirement for specialist experts in that process is retained through the Minister appointing specialist members to the DAC when DAC is dealing with a Major Development proposal.