The State Government has today released the inaugural State Planning Policies (SPPs), which set out a state-wide vision for land use in South Australia and will help drive population growth.
“The first priority of these planning policies is to support the Marshall Government’s population growth agenda,” said Minister for Planning Stephan Knoll.
“The Marshall Government is committed to helping South Australia thrive as an international destination for innovation, investment, employment and world-class living.
“These SPPs are an important step in achieving these ambitions and will improve the livability, sustainability and prosperity of our state.
“Importantly, the SPPs unify the disparate and conflicting policy positions that have been held across government for a generation.
“By laying out a single, over-arching vision for land use and development, we will achieve unprecedented direction and clarity in our planning system.
“For the first time, we have a single policy platform to help us realise our state interests across housing, cultural heritage, primary industry, the environment, transport, and natural hazards.
“These policies build on the principles of good planning set out in the Planning, Development and Infrastructure Act 2016 and give voice to the strategic planning priorities that matter most to the future of our state.
“It is critical that South Australia’s land use planning system works with other policy levers to facilitate and support population growth, respond to community aspirations and enable the delivery of necessary services and infrastructure to the locations where they are needed most.”
The preparation of the SPPs was led by the State Planning Commission in collaboration with the Department for Planning, Transport and Infrastructure, key state agencies, planning and development professionals across the state and the wider South Australian community.
Chair of the Commission, Michael Lennon said the release of the SPPs is another of the many exciting changes to our state’s planning system.
“These policies aim to make things clearer, better coordinated and easier to understand – whether applied in our future Code, plans that we prepare or in some cases how we frame assessment,” said Mr Lennon.
“As such, the inaugural State Planning Policies are an important contribution to our transformative change program for planning in South Australia.”
The SPPs are the highest level policy instrument in South Australia’s new planning and development system, which will be fully operational by mid-2020.
The SPPs inform every subsequent planning tool in the new system, including the Planning and Design Code and Regional Plans.
The SPPs are effective immediately and can be downloaded now via www.saplanningportal.sa.gov.au
