#planningmatters
With the SA State Election happening this Saturday, PIA SA asks all planning and built environment professionals to pause and reflect on what each party stands for particularly in relation to planning. PIA SA recently wrote to all the main parties with our Election Statement to seek their commitment to key areas. The Statement contains six key areas PIA considers are necessary to ensure good planning and liveability communities.
Planning matters. Planning strengthens communities, promotes economic development and improves the choice of where and how people live and work. It helps identify hazards and reduce risks; it identifies, protects and enhances environmental, social, cultural and heritage values. The consistent ranking of Adelaide in the Top Ten Global Cities Liveability Rating Index attests in good measure, to the effectiveness of city planning and integrated infrastructure provision in Australia.
Planners enhance decision-making and help balance private, government and community interests for a better and more sustainable future. Planners help lead and manage change in the built and natural environment at a local, regional, state and national scale. They develop policy, identify and deliver agreed community outcomes; they contribute to solutions by encouraging vision, engaging and listening.
Good planning reduces risk and creates a level of certainty that enable households and businesses to invest in the purchase or development of land. Planning systems provide processes for fair and transparent assessment of proposed land use changes. By reducing risk and adding certainty to the decision-making process, planning adds value. That value can then be partially captured (e.g. through municipal rates and State land taxes) and reinvested in infrastructure and public facilities.
The Planning Institute of Australia (PIA) has a central role in developing and supporting high-quality planning professionals across all sectors to deliver good planning outcomes. PIA collaborates with government, academia, industry and the public and private sectors to improve the delivery of planning services and community access to planning.
The State Government has an important role to play in supporting good planning at a state level and ensuring that South Australia’s resources are utilised appropriately, and our tax dollars well spent. It is in the community’s interest that our new planning system and its outcomes are supported and properly funded.
In this context PIA calls on the State Government to:
A commitment to shape great places
A government which is dedicated on behalf of the South Australian community to supporting the critical role good planning and passionate planners play in making our regions, towns and cities great places to live.
A strategic approach to our challenges and opportunities
Guided by evidence and expertise, a government which makes planning and infrastructure investment decisions which build on our state’s strategic advantages and build the long-term health and prosperity of all South Australians.
Listening to communities and learning from experience
Leadership which learns from past experiences and is willing to collaborate with local communities to build future places that are inclusive, prosperous, safe and uniquely South Australian.
Realising the benefits of ongoing reform
A commitment to continue to roll out the most comprehensive overhaul of South Australia’s planning system in more than 20 years through benchmarking our processes against the best in Australia and recognising the importance of quality local planning, both for our capital city and across the regions.
Striving for sustainability and a healthy environment
Recognition that our settlement patterns (how we live) and our mobility (how we move) – with a focus on active and public transport - must continue to evolve and work in a manner complementary to our climate as our population, technologies and patterns of employment change.
Embedding the importance of great design
Renewed vigour in the government's pursuit of processes which place a high priority on the achievement of universal design principles in new developments which positively respond to context, are environmentally responsible and enhance a unique sense of place.
Happy voting!