The State Planning Commission is seeking feedback on the Community Engagement Charter which sets the framework for engaging with communities on strategic planning decisions such as Code Amendments and the Regional Plan for Greater Adelaide.

The Fact Sheet suggests that the proposed changes ‘aim to ensure engagement is inclusive and respectful for all South Australians by highlighting the need to consider appropriate opportunities for the following communities to influence planning decisions that affect or interest them:

• First Nations
• youth
• culturally and linguistically diverse communities
• people living with disability and neurodiverse communities
• businesses, workers and employers.’

Of significance for the community is that there are other additional proposed changes aimed  ‘to streamline delivering changes to planning rules such as rezoning land, where the community has had an opportunity to give their views and influence the decision as part of the regional planning process.’

A new section titled: Part B – Minimum Mandatory Requirements – Complying Changes has been included to address the minimum requirements that would apply in such circumstances.  This includes that:

• a minimum of 14 days may be an appropriate timeframe for seeking submissions (subject to the Minister for Planning’s agreement);
• that submissions are written only; and
• that the representation is limited to commenting on the proposal; and cannot affect the relevant recommendation in the Regional Plan

In effect, this means that if the Minister for Planning is satisfied with the community engagement undertaken as part of the preparation of a Regional Plan (ie The Greater Adelaide Regional Plan in the case of Yankalilla) that community (& Council) engagement for Code Amendments to rezone land that is consistent with the Regional Plan (ie to rezone land for urban/residential purposes within the town boundary/areas identified for township growth) may be able to be undertaken with a 14 day period and be restricted to those criteria listed above.

The State Planning Commission intends to run two online information sessions regarding these proposed changes as follows:

• Tuesday,16 April, 2 pm to 3 pm; and
• Thursday, 9 May, 10:30 am to 11:30 am

Registration for these online information sessions and further information can be found at the SA Gov YourSay website here: https://yoursay.sa.gov.au/community-engagement-charter