Unley Council this week responded to Minister Rau’s request to work with him on his Ministerial DPA. We have determined we would prefer to cooperate than to alienate.

In so doing we are cautious about how much we cooperate given the government’s history of decide and defend as its method of consultation rather than Council’s approach of engaging with our citizens.

 We have tried to find the right balance between following the Governments DPA lead and ensuring the most sensitives areas of our council area, namely Goodwood Central and King William Road, are not treated with a governmental broad brush of one size fits all. We have also been mindful of what we can achieve given our limited resources.

In an attempt to retain some control where it is needed most we approved the motion below moved by myself as our response to the minister.

That:
1. The report be received.
2. The Administration provide a response to the Minister outlining initial concerns, including but not limited to:
(a) exclusion of the sensitive historic and complex Goodwood central village area to the south of Leader Street to allow the timely preparation of a Precinct Plan by Council;
(b) exclusion of the complex King William Road commercial areas to the south of the Glen Osmond Creek until further targeted investigations and consultation can occur;
(c) consideration being given to establishing purely residential zones in appropriate areas, eg Leader Street (south side), Anzac Highway and Goodwood Road south of the train overpass;

(d) recommending a review of the current Urban Corridor Zone public notification criteria whereby development above the designated height or built form envelope limits be Category 3.

3. The Administration provide policy input as appropriate.
4. When there is greater understanding of proposed State Government consultation arrangements, further guidance be sought from Council as to the extent of involvement by the Administration.

In keeping the recent comments in my blog posts Council has recognised a need for us to influence as much as we can the results of this Ministerial DPA. We have, in doing so, recognised that there are certain areas that need our intimate approach more than others and have singled them out as areas best left for us to develop a DPA of our own in time.

Two key DPA areas that need our intimate approach are King William Road and Goodwood Road just south of the tram line.