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Legislative Council - Fifty-First Parliament, Third Session (51-3)
2009-03-05 Daily Xml
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PORT LINCOLN, PLANNING

The Hon. M. PARNELL (15:01): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for Urban Development and Planning a question about building heights in Port Lincoln.

Leave granted.

The Hon. M. PARNELL: Recently, the Port Lincoln city council received a record number of submissions from the public in relation to proposed changes to planning rules in that city. Local residents are particularly upset at changes to building heights that are being allowed in the city centre zone, and this is the zone, members would know, that follows the foreshore at Port Lincoln.

The zone is primarily two-storey buildings at present. However, the new development plan amendment by the minister allows building heights of between three and 12 storeys. Over 200 people made submissions to the council opposing the new height allowances and over 4,000 people signed a petition opposing the changes.

These were overwhelmingly Port Lincoln residents so, when you consider that the entire population of the city is about 13,000, it represents about a third of the population of Port Lincoln who have signed this petition. I understand that the minister also has a copy of this.

A community action group has formed to oppose these changes to the planning rules, and typical of the responses that I have received from Port Lincoln residents is that, if they wanted to live in a high-rise coastal environment, they would move to the Gold Coast. Residents see these changes as harming the very character of Port Lincoln and destroying the town's special ambience.

My question is: what will the minister do to address these concerns, and will he reverse the changes to building height rules?

The Hon. P. HOLLOWAY (Minister for Mineral Resources Development, Minister for Urban Development and Planning, Minister for Small Business) (15:02): The first point that needs to be made is that the development plan amendment is not a ministerial development plan amendment; it is a council-initiated development plan amendment. The other point that the honourable member needs to understand is that, as I understand it, there are currently no height limits in relation to the foreshore.

Certainly, most of the buildings along there are less than two storeys, but my understanding is that the current development plan does not have height limits. I have had a meeting with the community action group and I understand its concerns. The dilemma that I face is that, if I were to disallow the council's development plan amendment, it would revert to the current plan which has no height limits.

There are no height limits and, therefore, you could certainly build a large building. That is the dilemma that I face, and I think that I had a good discussion with the community action group. The members of the group understand that, and I am considering how I can deal with that. So, there is a healthy debate going on at the local level within Port Lincoln. This has been initiated by the council.

There has been a reaction from residents. Ultimately, it will come to the government. Clearly, I will be considering the advice I receive. To this stage, I have not received any recommendations from my department in relation to it. Of course, one of the options that I have whenever there are controversial development plan amendments is to refer them to DPAC, the independent policy advisory council. That is one of the options I have.

I will await the advice of the department, but I think it does need to be understood that, if it were just a question of rejecting the proposed development plan amendment, it would revert to the current situation where there are no height limits at all on the foreshore.

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