DEVELOPMENT PLANS

The Hon. CARMEL ZOLLO (14:56): Is the Minister for Urban Development and Planning aware of any work being carried out by local councils to adapt their development plans to introduce planning controls that preserve local character, whilst still providing a mechanism to allow for replacement and renewal?

The Hon. P. HOLLOWAY (Minister for Mineral Resources Development, Minister for Urban Development and Planning, Minister for Small Business) (14:57): Adelaide has its own distinct charm and character, and this has been acknowledged in the government's 30-Year Plan for Greater Adelaide. The squares of the city centre, North Adelaide and the Parklands are central to our city's image. This image is also supported by the character of our inner suburbs, where architectural types and building materials create a quintessentially Adelaide streetscape.

An important element of the 30-year plan has been policies to preserve those streetscapes and concentrate new development along major transport corridors. Last week I finalised the City of Unley Village Living and Desirable Neighbourhoods Development Plan Amendment, Stage 1. This development plan amendment has been under interim operation since November 2008 and has now been gazetted. I congratulate the City of Unley on its work in identifying the area's unique local heritage and character aspects through this pioneering style of development plan. Approval of the final version follows three years of negotiation with the local council, and I thank the Unley mayor, Richard Thorne, his fellow councillors and the council staff for their patience and cooperation, which has been critical to the successful completion of this development plan amendment process.

I also acknowledge the work of the Department of Planning and Local Government in helping the City of Unley to develop this innovative form of town planning. The City of Unley can now focus its attention on developing zoning and planning policies for arterial roads and major transport corridors that are consistent with the 30-year plan. The 30-year plan aims to concentrate further development along our city's major transport corridors in a way that allows for about 80 per cent of the metropolitan Adelaide area to remain largely unchanged.

The City of Unley's development plan amendment provides a broad template for guiding other councils on how best to manage residential development within that 80 per cent, especially within our cherished dress-circle suburbs. The most innovative element of this development plan is that it provides a framework to manage both the continued demand for growth and renewal within Unley with a desire to preserve the area's quintessential character. This is achieved by ensuring that buildings within the identified residential streetscapes can only be demolished once a replacement is assessed to be consistent with the area's specific character. One of the major challenges of the 30-year plan is to provide urban renewal in older developed areas by harnessing industrial land for higher density housing as the government intends to do at the Clipsal site in Bowden.

The City of Unley has provided direction on how we can still allow for the replacement of some of the older housing stock or build on long-vacant blocks in areas that have an agreed and identified character streetscape. As I have said before in this place, there will always be people who have an aspiration to live within Adelaide's dress-circle suburbs. For them the preferred option to enter that market is to develop some of the few remaining vacant lots or replace some of the run-down housing stock.

While many of the heritage and character homes have been well maintained, vacant blocks and rundown and derelict housing stock provide some opportunities for redevelopment within the suburbs. However, these opportunities have to be managed so as not to clash with the existing heritage and character, and the best way to achieve this is through a development plan. Planning policies contained within the new development plan also identify a new residential historic conservation zone that encompasses all the heritage areas of the City of Unley.

Stage 2 of Unley's development plan amendment process will consider the long-term vision for this council area and the opportunities for continued population growth close to the city. I suspect that this will be achieved by increasing housing density and diversity in some of the remaining residential areas of the council area that are not included in the local heritage or character zones. This will probably mean some substantial upscaling along existing rail and traffic corridors and in key activity centres within the City of Unley. Such an approach is consistent with the objectives of the 30-year plan, and I look forward to working with the City of Unley in developing the stage 2 development plan amendment in a way that allows us to achieve those goals.