Residential Growth in Burnside - Stage 2 Consultation

As part of the implementation of the 30-Year Plan, the Minister for Planning has directed councils within the Greater Adelaide Region to align their strategic priorities and Development Plan with the 30-Year Plan.

The Minister for Planning responded to the City of Burnside 2012 Strategic Directions (Section 30) Report. The Minister raised a number of issues including the need for Council’s commitment to address the dwelling and population growth targets in the 30-Year Plan for Greater Adelaide.

Accordingly, Council undertook a consultation process to seek the views and opinions of our community on how and where Council should focus its investigations looking at additional opportunities for housing growth within the City of Burnside. It is important that, while context and ideas can be put forward by the Council, the community is starting with an essentially ‘blank canvas’ and not a proposal in a drafted Development Plan Amendment (DPA).

Details of the engagement

The consultation process is a three phase process supporting the development of a draft Development Plan Amendment. Stage 1 and Stage 2 of the consultation have been completed. Stage 3 of the consultation on the draft Development Plan Amendment will occur this financial year.

A range of methods were used in Stage 1 and Stage 2 of this engagement program, including:

• Media Releases;
• Notices and articles in Burnside Focus – Resident Newsletter;
• Notices and articles in the Messenger Press (Eastern Courier);
• Notices and articles on Council website;
• YouTube video explaining the concept of residential growth;
• Facebook postings;
• One city wide direct mail out to all properties, including non-residential ratepayers;
• One city wide unaddressed mail out to all properties, including direct mail to non-residential ratepayers;
• Promotional displays at Civic Centre and other Council venues;
• Engage.burnside survey response tool;
• Two community workshop information sessions;
• Survey – online, self-administered paper and 400 resident telephone survey;
• Consultation with Elected Members and staff using workshops and reports; and
• Consultation with Council’s Development Assessment Panel.

Key Messages to the Community from Council

The key messages and considerations that were emphasised to our community during the engagement process included:

• that Council has an obligation to address the issue of growth within its area;
• the aims, objectives and purpose of the 30-Year Plan;
• consideration of the key directions and targets of the 30-Year Plan;
• the positive associated outcomes of growth, including housing diversity, economic development and access to facilities;
• the need to balance sustainable future population growth and housing demand with our valued existing character, trees and the environment;
• the needs of our ageing population;
• the need to provide housing choice opportunities for the community;
• implications of the State’s Inner Metropolitan Growth planning;
• location and capacity of existing infrastructure such as roads and stormwater;
• access to existing services and facilities such as shops, schools, public transport, health services and open space;
• age of existing building stock;
• existing streetscapes/street trees;
• existing mix and types of land use;
• potential development sites (focused on large sites in single ownership);
• existing building heights;
• laneway opportunities; and
• market demand for development.

Key Messages from our Community to Council

A summary of the key messages and considerations that were emphasised by the community to Council were as follows.

Popular Housing Options – that apartments / units and multi-use, multi-storey, shop-top apartments are more acceptable to be built on main roads. In established residential areas, the community showed a preference for low density dwellings (single dwellings, semi-detached or row dwellings).

Where Housing Should Occur? – around a quarter of the telephone survey respondents said they preferred new growth mainly on main roads and 38 per cent said they preferred half on main roads and half in established residential areas. 29 percent of hard copy respondents preferred half on main roads and half in residential areas and 50 percent preferred growth to occur mostly on main roads.

Future Housing Options – currently 75 per cent of telephone survey respondents live in a single storey detached house. Around half of the phone respondents thought they would be living in the same house in the next 10 to 20 years and a quarter said that they would still be living in the City of Burnside but in a different house in the next 10 to 20 years.

Of those who said they would not be in the same house, less than half thought they would be living in a single dwelling house and around one in five thought they would be living in an apartment or unit. This shows that there will be a demand for a range of housing styles in the future, even among older residents who will seek to live in smaller, easier to maintain, dwellings.

Investment Property – if people chose to purchase an investment property in Burnside, approximately 33 per cent (phone) to 24 per cent (hardcopy) of respondents thought they would choose a single dwelling and 25 per cent (phone) to 22 per cent (hardcopy) of respondents thought they would purchase an apartment / unit for investment.

Creating future neighbourhoods – when respondents were asked to nominate what they most liked about their neighbourhood the responses were trees and green vegetation, character, parks and playgrounds, shops and living close to the Adelaide Central Business District.

When respondents were asked to nominate which aspects they thought most needed improvement, the key areas were the style of development, streetscapes, protection of heritage, and access to public transport.

Next Steps

The results of this consultation have highlighted community views which will inform future amendments to Council’s Development Plan. The Development Plan is the legal document used by Council to guide and direct where and how development occurs in our city. Council’s current Development Plan does not adequately provide scope to meet our community’s future needs. It is now necessary to amend our current Development Plan to address this requirement.

The feedback during this engagement has indicated a level of acceptance for a variety of approaches which could address the future growth and housing needs of our community. It has also provided feedback on what would not be acceptable such as numerous higher density developments in the established suburbs which compromise the existing character and amenity of the area.

There is a general community acceptance of the need to allow for change, provided that development is sympathetic with existing neighbourhoods and streetscapes.

There is a strong desire within the community to see an improvement in the style of development which has occurred in recent decades and its resultant impact on established streetscapes. While amendments to the Development Plan can address these concerns to some degree, the overriding controls for this issue will still be highly influenced by State Government policy and legislation as well as the community’s building and economic choices.

The next stage in the Development Plan Amendment process is the preparation of a Statement of Intent(s) which will be submitted to the Minister for Planning. Further community consultation will occur regarding the specific planning policy and details, during the Development Plan Amendment process in accordance with legislative requirements.

"New housing needs to be sympathetic to the existing neighbourhood and streetscape."

The statement above, was a key message we heard from members of the community who responded to the first stage of engagement which asked about the style and location of new housing in the City of Burnside. Many respondents identified the need to maintain and enhance the City’s character, appearance and amenity by:

• Protecting areas of historic conservation and character
• Retaining views of the skyline to the hills face zone by restricting building heights
• Retaining tree-lined avenues
• Providing parks and reserves across the City of Burnside
• Undergrounding services where possible
• Retaining existing medium and larger sized allotments in established residential areas
• Providing more off-street parking
• Increasing public transport

Opportunities for creating a range of housing options appropriate to specific locations in our City

To facilitate further discussion about possible housing types and to plan for the preferred locations for housing growth, the diagrams below show examples of creating more housing opportunities. Which do you prefer? The neighbourhood and streetscape will inevitably change to some degree, regardless of which options you choose. You can influence how we manage this change.

Options 1 - 4: In established residential areas by allowing further opportunities for the subdivision of existing allotments or the construction of ancillary dwellings (see Map 1)

Options 5 - 7: On suitable sites along main roads and in select locations by allowing further opportunities for row housing, apartments and/or shop-top housing to agreed building heights (see Map 2)

Indicative growth patterns

To give an indication of the cumulative effects of these options for creating housing opportunities to meet the 30-Year Plan housing targets, we have presented two extreme scenarios – MAP 1 which shows all housing growth occurring within established residential areas or MAP 2 which shows all growth occurring on suitable sites on main roads and select locations. These maps are indicative only and are intended to represent the extremes of a range of potential possible outcomes.

MAP 1: Housing options – 100% growth in established residential areas (indicative only).

MAP 2: Housing options – 100% growth on main roads and selected sites (indicative only).

Do you have a preference for the proportion of new residential development to be located within established residential streets or on main roads or do you prefer a combination of these options?

Tell us what you think by completing the survey or attending a community workshop.