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Legislative Council - Fifty-First Parliament, Third Session (51-3)
2009-04-07 Daily Xml
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RESIDENTIAL DEVELOPMENT

The Hon. CARMEL ZOLLO (15:27): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for Urban Development and Planning a question about pressure to find more land for residential development close to Adelaide.

Leave granted.

The Hon. CARMEL ZOLLO: The demand for new land for residential development within metropolitan Adelaide has remained strong, despite the global financial crisis. However, there is also pressure to maintain open space for the wellbeing of the community. The government has already realigned the urban growth boundary to bring more than 2,000 hectares into the urban growth boundary, and it has begun work on a 30 year plan for Greater Adelaide. My question is: what else is being done to identify potential new land for housing whilst also providing open space?

The Hon. P. HOLLOWAY (Minister for Mineral Resources Development, Minister for Urban Development and Planning, Minister for Small Business) (15:28): I thank the Hon. Carmel Zollo for her important question. It is important that we begin planning and earmark now where Adelaide will grow. Combined with targeted redevelopment within our existing suburbs, new areas are required to provide housing and location choice for South Australians.

In 2007, this government added more than 2,000 hectares of land in the urban growth boundary. Some of that land, at Gawler East, is currently going through a development plan amendment process, which will open up new areas for housing in the north. Some 76 hectares of land at Highbury were also included in the urban growth boundary, providing a rare opportunity to open up new land within the north-east for housing close to the city.

As part of the process of opening that land for development, last week I announced that the Highbury land, which is in the City of Tea Tree Gully, is to be rezoned. Public feedback is being sought on this proposed rezoning, which also involves rehabilitating a sand quarry and a landfill site. This proposed rezoning provides a framework for developing a new low to medium density residential estate, and I envisage that it will provide the opportunity to develop in the order of 800 allotments.

This government is committed to a policy of delivering 15 per cent affordable housing with any new development, and that will be the case at Highbury, which has the potential for 800 new homes and the jobs they create in the building and construction industry. It will mean work for tilers, roofers, bricklayers, landscape gardeners, and their apprentices; jobs for the crews who will lay out the new roads for any subdivision; and work for the architects and designers who will shape any new housing development. Also, of course, it means local jobs for local businesses and the benefits that job generation provides to the economy of the north-eastern suburbs.

It is no secret that there is a shortage of land throughout Adelaide, with the potential for new land releases becoming more difficult to identify as the city is squeezed between the gulf to the west and the hills face zone to the east, so it is pleasing that we have been able to identify these 70-plus hectares of land in the north-east to take off some of the pressure for the release of new land to the north and south of the urban growth boundary. The rezoning also ensures that we preserve sufficient open space to meet the needs of the expanding population in Adelaide's north-eastern suburbs.

It also ensures that a very significant stand of native eucalypts on the adjoining Majestic Grove location will be protected from development as part of the proposed development plan amendment. I take this opportunity to acknowledge the work of the member for Newland, Tom Kenyon MP, in his efforts to strenuously convey to my office the community's keen desire to retain this impressive strip of gum trees. Tom Kenyon has been very diligent in responding to his electorate and the constituents of his electorate in relation to protecting this stand of trees along Majestic Grove, and I hope anyone who visits there will see how important that is. We are pleased that we can address that in relation to this development plan amendment.

This stand of trees will create a green zone between the existing housing at Highbury and the land that is subject to the development plan amendment on the other side of Majestic Grove. The rezoning also provides the potential to fill in the missing link between Black Hill Conservation Park and the Anstey Hill Recreation Park. The negotiations with the quarry owner will allow 300 hectares of land within the hills face zone to be returned to state ownership and provide the opportunity to develop that area with walking trails which will also provide a fitting end to the River Torrens Linear Park, which now ends at this quarry site.

That alone will be a great outcome for the South Australian community, with 200 hectares put into the state parks system to complete this gap between the Black Hill Conservation Park and the Anstey Hill Conservation Park in addition to 79 hectares where 800 houses can be provided.

While the remediation of the CEMEX sand mine will return land suitable for housing, the capping and revegetation of the Highbury landfill site—

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. P. HOLLOWAY: —also sets aside an area of open space within the development plan amendment. The Environment Protection Authority will be required to adequately assess the remediation work carried out on the landfill sites and also on the CEMEX sand quarry.

This has been a long process. The government needed to ensure that the sand mine resources were depleted and that a suitable rehabilitation plan was in place for the quarry. We also had to work with the government and the EPA to ensure that the landfill site was appropriately capped and monitoring systems put in place to make that area suitable for any nearby development. The development plan amendment takes us a step closer to realising our ambition of opening up this area for residential redevelopment and also extending the parks system through this section of the hills face zone.

A draft of the proposed rezoning is available for two months of community consultation from 9 April 2009 to 11 June. Copies of the draft are available during that time at the Department of Planning and Local Government on North Terrace and also the City of Tea Tree Gully offices at Modbury. The development plan amendment can also be viewed online at the Department of Planning and Local Government website.

The public meeting is to be held on 1 July 2009 at 7pm at Sfera's on the Park, 191 Reservoir Road at Modbury. At the close of the consultation period, the proposed development plan amendment, along with submissions from the public, local government, government agencies and community and industry groups, is to be considered by the Independent Development Policy Advisory Committee.

A detailed structure plan is also to be drawn up in conjunction with the local council and government agencies which will be required before any of the land is developed. As I have done on many occasions before in relation to development plan amendments and other strategic planning for this state, I urge members of the public to have their say. Their input is important in making sure that the final version of the development plan amendment addresses all the issues of concern to the community.

I believe it is a very significant outcome for this state which will not only lead to some housing within the north-eastern suburbs but also 300 hectares will be returned to the state for open space purposes. It is a very good outcome, I believe, for the people of this state.

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