Privately Funded Planning and Design Code Amendments Policy and Procedure

In recent years a new planning system has been introduced in South Australia in response to the Planning, Development and Infrastructure Act, 2016 (the Act). In March 2021 Council Development Plans across South Australia were repealed and replaced by the state-wide Planning and Design Code (the Code), which brought about the need for Council to review its own policies and procedures to ensure they reflect the new legislative framework.

The new state planning system allows for a private proponent/person who has an interest in a locality to initiate amendments to the Code. On those occasions where Council is not in a position to undertake a proposed amendment, a private entity can ask Council to prepare the amendment at their cost. Considering this, it has been necessary for Council to prepare a suitable policy and procedure that ensures it meets its legislative requirements as well as the expectations of the community for open, transparent and consistent process, while also aligning outcomes with Council’s strategic objectives.

Since the introduction of the Code, Council has been working with its counterparts at Alexandrina Council to develop the draft Privately Funded Planning and Design Code Amendments Policy and Procedure. At its meeting in August 2022 Council endorsed the Policy and Procedure for consultation and in December 2022 the community engagement was open for submissions over a three-week period.

On review of the initial phase of consultation some themes emerged from the community and so the opportunity was taken to extend the community engagement period to address some frequently asked questions and ensure that anyone who wanted to share their thoughts with Council had good opportunity to do so. Community engagement will concluded on Tuesday, 24 January 2023.

To read more about Privately Funded Development Code Amendments visit the PlanSA website at www.plan.sa.gov.au

If you’d like to get a feel for what the Code Amendment Process looks like check out the PlanSA Code Amendment Map viewer. You’ll see that the Map Viewer displays code amendments across South Australia once they have been initiated, all the way through the process, and provides an overview on status, proposal and linkages to relevant information.