A code amendment is a proposal to change the policies, rules, or mapping within the Code and is sometimes referred to as a rezoning. A Code Amendment can be initiated by a Council, a private proponent or the Minister. The Proposal to Initiate outlines the scope of the proposed changes and the investigations to be completed and must be approved before commencing a Code Amendment.

Council has considered that in many cases the single, state-wide planning Code has generally resulted in a ‘one size fits all’ approach to zoning within the state and as a result, we have identified some loss of policy to identify local character in the McLaren Vale township. This has brought about the need to amend the existing planning policies in the Code through a Code Amendment to reflect the community’s vision and also to ensure that the planning policies that transitioned from our Development Plan into the Code are best fit for McLaren Vale township now and into the future.

The suggested policy changes follow the state and council strategic framework documents that guide all planning decisions for planning policy and any subsequent Code Amendments, including the 30-Year Plan for Greater Adelaide 2017 – Update, the South Australia Planning Policies (SPPs) and the Onkaparinga Local Area Plan (OLAP). OLAP was endorsed by Council in 2020 as a strategic growth strategy to guide future decisions of Council in relation to development and it assumes that our townships will accommodate 5% of the city’s growth over the next 20 years.