Planning and Design Code

In reply to the Hon. J.A. DARLEY (10 June 2021).

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS (Treasurer): The Attorney-General has advised:

The ePlanning platform—an Australian first—unites the PlanSA Portal, the online Planning and Design Code (the code), the South Australian Property and Planning Atlas and the electronic Development Application Processing system.

The new electronic development system allows data about development application processes to be captured more conveniently than ever before. All South Australians can now lodge and track development applications online, search property zoning, find an accredited professional, review development rules, make payments, submit information and track major projects and development activity across the state.

Any issues around the time frames for processing planning applications can be monitored on a regular basis, and in turn may then inform improvements to the code or other aspects of the development assessment process.

With any new system, there will be a period of adjustment. The PlanSA portal and code are significant new systems to learn. Over time, stakeholders will become more familiar with these new systems, and applications will continue to take significantly less time to process. Ongoing enhancements to the system and technical amendments to the code will therefore assist in this area.

I am advised that as at 16 June 2021, there are over 12,000 users of the system, and usage is well within system capacity. The most recent average development approval time for deemed-to-satisfy development applications is 3.35 days and performance assessed development applications is 14.9 days (without public notification) and 41.11 days (with public notification). These time frames are all within the statutory requirements.

The most recent figures show that there has already been significant improvement in processing times for all development application processes when compared to the old planning system.