So-called ‘NIMBY supergroup’ calls for urgent review of SA’s planning system to give locals more say over developments
A coalition of community groups has formed to demand a review of SA’s planning system - but developers and a minister say it will just slow desperately needed housing.
A coalition of South Australian groups is being described as an anti-housing “NIMBY supergroup” after it called for an urgent review of the state’s planning system to give more power to residents opposed to local developments.
More than a dozen community groups and prominent individuals last week signed a statement calling for an immediate review of the planning process, saying the system “increasingly treats public consultation as an inconvenient formality”.
Some of the signatories included Liberal member for Unley David Pisoni, the Trees Not Teslas group opposed to a Tesla battery factory at Marion, the Magill Matters group opposed to a housing development at the former UniSA Magill campus, and a group opposed to a 20-storey Cedar Woods building at Glenside.
The statement said communities were not given enough time to review complex development proposals, the decision-making process for planning was opaque and there was a disregard for the impacts of developments on local amenity, infrastructure and heritage.
Glenside Development Action Group spokesman Craig Pickering said developers could spend 12 months writing reports and producing marketing materials, while locals affected by developments only had a six-week public consultation period to produce their responses.
“It’s so heavily weighted in the developer’s favour that it’s not funny,” he said.
UDIA SA chief executive Liam Golding rejected the call for a review of the planning system, saying the process could be improved but not by “adding cost, uncertainty, and delay from further consultation”.
He said recommendations were still being implemented from a previous review of the system, and NIMBY groups had the ability “to block and delay projects around the metropolitan area, particularly the eastern suburbs”.
“One wonders whether this NIMBY supergroup is truly concerned with consultation or is just blaming the process on the odd occasion they don’t get their way,” Mr Golding said.
Planning Minister Nick Champion said developers increasing the state’s housing supply “should be supported instead of demonised”, and South Australians should “reject an anti-housing mindset”.
He said the available metrics proved SA’s planning system “creates an environment where more houses are being built”, pointing to recent ABS data showing the state’s construction work was up 8.4 per cent from last year.
Magill Matters committee member Denise MacGregor said she believed “decisions are being made without a thorough consultation, or the consultation is very superficial and it’s not adhered to or taken seriously”.
Another signatory, newly elected City of Adelaide councillor Patrick Maher, previously led a campaign to save Adelaide’s Crown and Anchor Hotel from demolition.
He said representations opposing the demolition set a new record for the State Commission Assessment Panel despite only a fraction of his supporters making submissions – showing “how disengaged people are, and how inaccessible the process is”.
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Originally published as So-called ‘NIMBY supergroup’ calls for urgent review of SA’s planning system to give locals more say over developments
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