Planning Strategy for the Outer Metropolitan Adelaide Region

There are currently five volumes in the Planning Strategy for South Australia:

  • The Planning Strategy for Metropolitan Adelaide (December 2007)
  • The Planning Strategy for the Outer Metropolitan Adelaide Region (December 2007)
  • The Planning Strategy for Regional SA (January 2003, as amended at December 2007)
  • The Yorke Peninsula Regional Land Use Framework (December 2007) 
  • The Greater Mount Gambier Master Plan (February 2008)

The Outer Metropolitan Adelaide Region covers the near country and Hills areas surrounding Adelaide to the north, east and south. It stretches in an arc, from Kapunda in the north, through the Barossa and Adelaide Hills (including Mount Barker and Strathalbyn), down to Cape Jervis and the mouth of the Murray River in the Southern Fleurieu Peninsula (including Victor Harbor and Goolwa).

The region provides the physical interface between Metropolitan Adelaide and rural South Australia, and houses approximately 100,000 people in a wide variety of settings. The region includes the Mount Lofty Ranges Water Catchment, and some of the most important agriculture and tourism areas for South Australia, including the Barossa Valley and Victor Harbor. 

The Planning Strategy for Outer Metropolitan Adelaide (December 2007) provides direction from the State Government on land use and development in this region over the medium term (a period of 10-15 years). It provides a comprehensive framework to guide future development, and will inform further detailed work with local councils, industry and local residents.

In particular, the maps, policies and strategies contained in the Planning Strategy provide direction and a resource for Councils undertaking strategic planning processes, including Strategic Management Plans, Development Plan reviews and Development Plan Amendments.

(Note: until August 2006 the Outer Metropolitan Region was known as the ‘Inner Region’ and was covered in the Regional SA volume of the Planning Strategy) 

December 2007 update

On 20 December 2007 the Planning Strategy for the Outer Metropolitan Adelaide Region (August 2006) was updated to reflect the new urban boundary for metropolitan Adelaide adopted on that date. No other substantive changes were made to the volume.

Documents for download

The Planning Strategy for the Outer Metropolitan Adelaide Region (December 2007) is available for download:

Highlights

Key policies include:

  • Strengthening opportunities for primary industries and releated value-adding, and the tourism industry
  • Urban containment of townships and identification of future growth directions 
  • Identification of areas preferred for industrial development (in particular for value-adding to primary industry)
  • Introduction of three areas to improve protection of the Mount Lofty Ranges Watershed
  • Strengthening of biodiversity and open space, including policies for coastal and marine environments (see Chapters 3.1 to 3.5) 

Further detail 

The Planning Strategy for the Outer Metropolitan Adelaide Region is arranged in four chapters.

Chapter 1 is Introductory, outlining the role and purpose of the Strategy.

Chapter 2 outlines the Context and Key Directions of the Strategy. It includes a commitment to ecologically sustainable development, outlines links between the Planning Strategy and the objectives of South Australia's Strategic Plan, and includes a discussion on the implications for future development of population policy, ageing and demographics.

Chapter 3 contains detailed policies under 19 policy headings, grouped under the titles 'Region Wide Policies', 'Towns and Urban Development' and 'Business and Industry'.

Chaper 4 covers implementation, monitoring and review.

Detailed Policies

The following policy topics are addressed in detail within Chapter 3 of the Planning Strategy for the Outer Metropolitan Adelaide Region:

REGION WIDE POLICIES

  • Water Resources
  • Biodiversity 
  • Coastal, Estuarine and Marine Environments  
  • Land Use and Transport Integration
  • Open Space, Recreation and Sport 
  • Energy Efficiency
  • Integrated Waste Management
  • Culture, Heritage and the Arts
  • Education Facilities
  • Health and Community Services
  • Hazard Avoidance, Minimisation and Management

TOWNS & URBAN DEVELOPMENT

  • Towns 
  • Activity Centres
  • Residential Neighbourhoods and Housing 
  • Urban Design

BUSINESS & INDUSTRY

  • Primary Industry
  • Employment and Business Focus Areas
  • Industrial Land
  • Tourism Facilities

Strengthening primary industries and tourism

It is vital for the growth of the state's economy that existing viable primary industries are retained and further investment in primary production in suitable locations is supported.

The majority of primary industries within the region are able to generate high returns per hectare, and capable of using their proximity to markets and transport terminals to advantage. In addition to recent strong growth in viticulture, there are a number of other industries expected to prosper. The most significant of these will be the established apple, pear and cherry industries, and the forestry sector, in particular farm forestry.

High value areas will be identified with industry and councils for additional protections from undesirable alternative development, including urban encroachment.

The region contains many of South Australia's premier tourist attractions. Destinations like the Barossa Valley, Adelaide Hills and Victor Harbor are located within an hour of Adelaide and offer premium food and wine, a variety of accommodation, nature based activities, and unique festivals and events.

Tourism appeal can be enhanced by sustaining the natural and cultural environment. Key components for tourism development are small-to-medium sustainable nature based and coastal tourism accommodation in strategic locations, and adding value to existing industries (such as wine tourism).

Town boundaries

To protect important primary production areas and ecological assets and to ensure more efficient use of existing services and infrastructure, urban growth will be accommodated within existing urban areas defined by town boundaries. 

The Strategy introduces urban land use town boundaries (Maps 11 to 23) to contain urban land uses in the following towns:

  • Mount Barker
  • Littlehampton
  • Nairne
  • Strathalbyn
  • Freeling
  • Yankalilla
  • Normanville
  • Carrickalinga
  • Clayton
  • Milang
  • Nuriootpa
  • Kapunda
  • Tanunda
  • Roseworthy
  • Mallala
  • Greenock

Further work will be undertaken on other town boundaries, in particular on the south coast. 

The Strategy provides that urban land uses for all other towns not named are contained within the urban area defined by the current urban zoning in their relevant Development Plan (urban land use does not include land zoned as deferred urban). 

The Strategy also establishes a policy to prevent the creation of new 'Rural Living' zones.

The Strategy puts in place policies to ensure that visual and functional separation of townships is maintained, in particular between:

  • Port Elliot and Middleton
  • Goolwa and Middleton
  • the communities at the boundary delineated by the watercourse between Victor Harbor and Port Elliot, and
  • Normanville and Carrickalinga.

Visual design-led separation is provided for between:

  • Yankalilla and Normanville
  • Mount Barker, Littlehampton and Nairne
  • the two separate urban areas of Second Valley.

Function of towns

A hierarchy of township functions is established in the Outer Metropolitan Adelaide region. This includes three main regional towns/centres, and a series of district towns and local 'main street' towns (see Chapter 3.12 for more detail).

Regional towns are the primary commercial, business, retail and service centres in the Region. The regional centres are: Mount Barker in the Central Hills Region; Victor Harbor in the Southern Fleurieu Region (with limitations to growth in other towns along the coast related to township character and landscape amenity, infrastructure and servicing issues); and Nuriootpa in the Barossa Region.

These towns should be able to accommodate significant growth if appropriate within the context of future State and regional urban growth management strategies.

The regional towns should provide value-adding commercial and retailing operations associated with food and wine as well as other priority industries identified by Regional Economic Development Boards, if not adversely impacting on surrounding uses.

Apart from industries that value add to the rural sector, major industrial expansion on the South Coast should be located at Goolwa, in the Adelaide Hills at Mt Barker/Strathalbyn and in the Barossa/Northern Adelaide Plains at the Kingsford Regional Industrial Estate (Gawler Belt).

District towns include Strathalbyn, Goolwa, Stirling, Tanunda and Kapunda. District towns should service local and regional needs but not be expected to carry the range of facilities and population that would exist in regional towns. District towns should be able to accommodate minor urban growth pressure if appropriate within the context of future State and regional growth management strategies.

Local towns include Yankalilla, Normanville, Myponga, Milang, Aldgate, Nairne, Littlehampton, Freeling, Lyndoch, Mallala, Second Valley and Greenock. These towns are designed to service their expected local catchment populations and should not accommodate urban growth pressure. 

Watershed  

The Planning Strategy divides the Mount Lofty Watershed, for development purposes, into three distinct areas, differentiating the inherent risks of new development on drinking water supplies in each area (with Area 1 having the highest risk and Area 3 the lowest).

Area 1 - includes those catchments and sub-catchments that discharge directly upstream of reservoirs or diversion weirs where water is taken into a water treatment plant.

Area 2 includes:

  • land upstream and within 2km of a secondary water supply reservoir or diversion weir
  • land within 100m of an aqueduct along the River Torrens and Onkaparinga Rivers used for conveying pumped River Murray water into downstream reservoirs
  • high run-off sub-catchments (exceeding 250mm annual rainfall equivalent)
  • land within 1 in 100 year average recurrence interval flood plains.

Area 3 - includes all remaining parts of the Watershed, including catchment areas set aside for possible future water supply reservoirs.

The Strategy promotes minimisation of land use intensification in the watershed, and promotes water sensitive urban design while retaining and reinforcing important primary industry.

Detail can be found in Chapter 3.1 of the Strategy.