South Australia’s planning system has undergone its biggest reform in over 20 years, led by the State Planning Commission through the Department of Planning, Transport and Infrastructure (DPTI).

In April 2016, Parliament passed the Planning, Development and Infrastructure Act 2016 (PDI Act) which replaces the system under the Development Act 1993.

New land use planning documents will be introduced to replace the Development Plan and South Australian Planning Strategy.

These changes included:

• establishment of an independent State Planning Commission (see www.saplanningcommission.sa.gov.au)
• establishment of a new Community Engagement Charter (see plan.sa.gov.au)
• delivering new planning tools for professionals and the public
• development of a planning professional accreditation system (see plan.sa.gov.au)
• delivering an online planning portal as a one-stop-shop for planning information and lodging development applications

The State Government provided several opportunities for community feedback on the Planning and Design Code. The Mount Barker District Council took this opportunity to provide comments to the State Government on various aspects of the new planning system including the Planning and Design Code (the rules for development) please see our comments below;

• First round of consultation on the Code (submitted 27 February 2020)
• Comments on Code changes (submitted October 2020)
• Second round of consultation on the Code (submitted 18 December 2020)