Stories about DPA Notification Process

Greens MP Mark Parnell has legislation before Parliament which aims to prevent planning rule changes coming into effect before public consultation about the changes has been completed. This was recently the case in the Adelaide City Council area where heights of multi-storey flats were hugely lifted by a Development Plan Amendment and developers came in and lodged their applications to which they gained approval before local residents had put their comments into the City Council about the changed rules. This was a travesty of justice and our Association strongly supports Mark 's efforts to outlaw this practice.

More relevant to our Council area perhaps is Mark's attempt to require local councils to better communicate with residents when Development Plan Amendments are being put out for public consultation. To this end we are cooperating with a group called Community Alliance to gather residents' stories about how they were affected by the DPA process. We urge residents who have the time and energy to send their stories into Community Alliance for forwarding on to Mark. The more powerful these stories are, the more ammunition Mark will have in debating this legislation in Parliament. These tales need not be long, just a few paragraphs.

The set question is: "If you or your group has been affected by the current notification process for DPAs, what happened and how were you affected?" Please send your stories to Helen Wilmore of Community Alliance at helenp.wilmore@bigpond.com