Fury as aged care provider Life Care’s project upgrade applications bypass council planning processes
THREE aged care facilities will bypass local planning considerations under the Government’s new laws, prompting fury from outraged eastern suburbs residents.
Life Care proposes $250m upgrades to three sites
THREE aged care facilities will bypass local planning considerations under new Government laws, prompting fury from outraged eastern suburbs residents.
Three high-rise aged care facilities proposed by Life Care will be the first to be granted “major development” status and not be subject to council-specific planning laws.
All aged care developments worth more than $20 million automatically garner “major development” status under Planning Minister John Rau’s new laws, meaning they don’t require approval from local councils.
Life Care’s redevelopments in Joslin, Norwood and Glen Osmond will instead be assessed directly by the state Planning Commission’s assessment panel.
The company has moved to engage with residents to hose down backlash while the assessments were underway, which a Government spokeswoman stressed was the state’s “most rigorous form of planning assessment”.
“Lifecare will be required to prepare detailed development reports for each application, addressing the environmental, social and economic impacts of each proposal,” she said.
“After Lifecare finalises the Development Reports, they will be made available for public comment.”
Opposition planning spokesman David Pisoni savaged the changes as lacking “regard for the lifestyle and investment of people who have bought houses in these areas”.
“Planning rules are put in place to be enforced, rather than to be broken whenever the government of the day pleases,” Mr Pisoni said.
The Government could opt to extend or discontinue the laws enabling aged care developments to bypass local planning processes after a review next June.
But laws allowing proposals of “significant economic benefit” to be deemed major developments will remain.
Mr Pisoni stopped short of promising to throw out the laws if the Liberals win next year’s election, noting it would only be in place for three months after the statewide poll. Joslin resident Peter Holmes, whose back fence borders the facility Life Care wants to extend from three to seven storeys, said the process had been “poisoned by secrecy”. “I’m not against development or Life Care, but there was an agreement struck in 2014. Stick with that,” he said.
Life Care chief executive Allen Candy said the company would consult with communities during the SCAP process, and stressed it was beyond the Government’s “mandated consultation requirements”.
“Through this engagement process, we want to provide residents with the opportunity to review our preliminary development concepts and discuss key issues so we can look for solutions and make amendments where possible,” he said.
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