In response to industry and community feedback, the State Government will re-introduce legislation to give stakeholders more time to implement the new Planning and Design Code (the Code).
The State Government is ready to launch the new Code as scheduled, however will be acting on advice from the State Planning Commission (SPC) based on stakeholder and community feedback.
Councils, industry and the community have asked for more time to understand, prepare and become business ready before the new planning system.
This Bill will remove the deadline of 1 July 2020 for full implementation of the Code, enabling the timeframe to be set by proclamation in the South Australian Government Gazette.
It is likely that implementation of Phase Two Code (rural) will be delayed by three months until July, while Phase Three (Urban) will be delayed three months until September 2020.
“The State Government is on track to deliver the new Planning and Design Code on time,” said Minister for Planning Stephan Knoll.
“However, the advice from the Commission is that stakeholders, councils and the community are asking for more time to understand the Code and become familiar with the new eplanning system.
“I will be acting on the advice of the Commission to grant councils and the community more time to understand, prepare and become business ready before the new planning system.
“This is a generational reform of our planning system so if industry and the community want more time to get it right, them we are open to granting them that time.
“It would be counterproductive to the planning system and developments across South Australia if we were to ignore the feedback from councils and the community and push ahead with the initial timelines.
“The Bill will also facilitate more time for testing and potentially more enhancements to be made to the eplanning system, should they be required.”
To date, there has been over 350 Phase Two and Phase Three submissions with more than 200 community, council and industry engagement events conducted.
Phase Three remains on consultation until the end of February.
