Lead Story
Issue No. 50 - December/ /
Plan for Reality
by Professor Richard Blandy
In July, the South Australian Government released a draft of its proposed 30-year Plan for Greater Adelaide entitled Planning the Adelaide we all want. Submissions were called for, to be submitted by 30 September 2009. I made a submission.
The draft 30-year Plan is a massive document of 531 pages. The main report is 248 pages and the background technical document is 283 pages, including five appendices totalling 93 pages.
Despite its huge size and expert look, the Plan is not convincing as a basis to carry the development of Adelaide forward for the next 30 years. This is a matter of key concern not only for Adelaide’s citizens but for Adelaide’s businesses.
As it stands, the Plan seems likely to unravel fast if it were implemented. Businesses making investment decisions on the basis of the Plan could be disappointed. The Plan should be significantly changed to avoid such an outcome.
Greater Adelaide is the metropolitan area (the Adelaide Statistical Division) together with the outer metropolitan area (the Outer Adelaide Statistical Division, less Kangaroo Island). Council areas included in the outer metropolitan area are: Mallala, Light, Barossa, Adelaide Hills, Mount Barker, Alexandrina, Victor Harbor and Yankalilla. Murray Bridge is also included in Greater Adelaide even though it is not strictly within the outer metropolitan area.
The underlying problem the Plan aims to solve is where to put the extra 560,000 people forecast to be added to Greater Adelaide’s population during the next 30 years. The solution adopted in the Plan is in Figure 1 below.
The most striking thing about this allocation is
that a massive 139,000 (25%) will go to the Barossa region while a paltry 22,000 (4%) are allocated to the Fleurieu region.
Taking the latter allocation first, while the Plan acknowledges the rapid growth of Adelaide’s aged and retired population during the next 30 years, it does not draw the obvious conclu...
