Question Time

OTAGO ROAD, WALLAROO

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY (Leader of the Opposition) (14:27): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the minister representing the Minister for Urban Development and Planning a question about Otago Road, Wallaroo.

Leave granted.

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: As a number of members would be aware, I had the very good fortune to spend a few days in Wallaroo last week, and I took the opportunity to meet with the Copper Coast council. The council had written to me, in particular, about the issue of Otago Road.

Otago Road is a beachfront drive at Wallaroo on the Yorke Peninsula. The shacks on this road used to be on crown lease. The owners of the seaward side properties negotiated at length with the state government in order to get freehold. The requirements were quite stringent. They limited building heights and said that nothing was to be built closer to the waterfront than had existed in 1994. They were put in the freeholding documents and subsequently into the development plan.

More than 10 years ago, a land management agreement was also initiated between the minister and the shack owners. One provision states that a shack or property owner there must replace any building or structure only with such building or structure either in the same location as the like improvements, buildings or structures already situated on the land. The intent was that the character of the road would be preserved.

Since the introduction of the South Australian Residential Development Code, it has come to light that development regulation 8A causes any ResCode compliant development to be compliant to the development plan. The one main contradiction between the plan's requirement for this zone and ResCode is that the plan dictated a character that 'maintains the single-storey, simple form of the existing shacks'. ResCode does not address the character of that area in any way.

Some people have got wind of this loophole and there is currently one application under ResCode with the Copper Coast council. It is for a two-storey house, and it is certainly non-compliant under the development plan. This would set a precedent for mass production-type residential developments along all Otago Road, which would certainly lose its holiday shack intended amenity.

Unfortunately, Tuesday is the deadline for the Copper Coast council to either approve or decline the application. The council has appealed to the former minister and to the department to exempt this particular shack zone from ResCode. However, it is yet to receive a response from the former minister, and the new minister has not been there for very long. I have also written yesterday, as a matter of urgency, to the new minister.

My question is: will the new minister urgently exempt that area from the residential code, and, if not, will the minister make assurance that no exemption to the land management agreement will be given for a development that does not fit in with the requirements of the development plan?

The Hon. G.E. GAGO (Minister for Regional Development, Minister for Public Sector Management, Minister for the Status of Women, Minister for Consumer Affairs, Minister for Government Enterprises) (14:27): I thank the honourable member for his question and will refer it to the Minister for Urban Development and Planning in another place and bring back a response.