Residential Growth in Burnside - Stage 1

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 consultation 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.

At the end of the consultation, the development plan will ultimately have new zones that will deliver opportunities for residential and mixed use development. The Development Plan will have policies designed to control the use of land.  Some zones may allow only for residential development and others may allow for a mix of uses, as is the case with the Urban Corridor Zone recently created by the Minister for Planning.

The purpose of this consultation is to assist the Council in amending its Development Plan. 

The Development Plan is the planning policy document that guides development in an area.  When it is amended, the policies in the Development Plan will enable development that is consistent with them.  The decision to develop land or not is then up to land owners.  There is no compulsion to develop land and hence whether the State Government’s targets are met and in what timeframe they may be met is in the hands of individual land owners who may decide to sell or develop their property.