Council Zones
Have you ever noticed how some areas are full of high density developments while some areas have maintained, in general, the single home on a traditional size block?
This is because your area is ‘zoned’ into separate areas by your local council. This zone decides what the property can used for. Some of the typical zones are industrial, commercial, shopping, community and, of course, residential.
I’ll talk about residential because that’s my specialty. The Planning and Development Act came in 1973 and since then, the state has been divided up into zones, for planning and development purposes. These zones, and their rules, have been continually changing over that time and what was, or wasn’t, permitted 20 years ago could be completely different now.
Currently the government has a vision that the population of Adelaide should grow from within the current ‘footprint’ and not by urban sprawl. This requires ‘urban infill’, which is a term describing, for example, the transformation of a single house-single block into 2 or more new dwellings. The government (state and local) need to facilitate this plan without completely losing the character of the area. So, every region has some high density zones, some zones allocated for only traditional (large) size blocks and some in between.
In general, the planning authorities want more people to live close to the train station, main road bus routes, major shopping centres, commercial centres, tourist hubs and the like. This is clearly demonstrated by the major developments that you see under construction on Anzac Highway at the moment, the significant developments around Westfield Marion and around the Glenelg precinct.
At the other end of the spectrum are the ‘heritage’ type zones where blocks sizes must be relatively large and house styles must reflect the character of the area. This often means that modern architecture is not permitted. This is designed to maintain a character and a streetscape that reflects the history of an area.
However, the majority of properties have a zone that is somewhere in between the above examples, where a traditional block of 700-800 sq metres would be suitable for the creating of the 2 new homes.
To find out about your suburb’s zones go to https://www.sa.gov.au/topics/planning-and-property/development-plans/greater-metropolitan-adelaide-development-plans