Developing a response to Adelaide's 30-Year Plan 

 

The City of West Torrens is an established inner-metropolitan area of Adelaide. The council subscribes to .id's online community profile - profile.id and social atlas - atlas.id and makes them available to the community via their website.

 

The population was relatively stable during the 1990s, and then increased slightly from 50,000 in 2001 to nearly 52,000 in 2006.

The City of West Torrens has recently conducted a housing study to assist in their response to The 30 Year Plan targets for West Torrens.

Conducted by .id consulting, the housing study looked at housing demand and supply, and identified a range of options for urban infill development.

The 30 Year Plan for Greater Adelaide, released by the Department of Planning and Local Government (DPLG) in early 2010, outlines growth targets for significant population growth in SA, requiring a corresponding increase in urban dwelling density.

“The DPLG has shown a clear commitment to inner city development.” explains Melissa Chrystal, Strategic Planner at West Torrens.

“They want to see DPAs (amendments to planning schemes) that provide for increased density, especially within urban transport corridors and around key activity centres”.

"By conducting a dwelling yield analysis with .id, we were able to demonstrate to the DPLG that our contribution to the western region population targets as detailed in the 30 Year Plan, could be provided in a way that suits our character and protects our heritage”.

"For example, we found that by doing the analysis, we could achieve 82% of higher density dwellings within 400m of a major transport zone – which is in keeping with the 30 Year Plan targets”.

"Overall, the housing.id study suggests the right outcome in terms of raw numbers for the 30 Year Plan targets, without needing the high rise developments suggested by DPLG”.
 

"The .id study was great timing, as we now have a wealth of information regarding our contribution to the plan. We feel informed and empowered and can confidently work alongside the State Government to achieve our joint objectives.”Melissa Chrystal, Strategic Planner West Torrens City Council

West Torrens now has the information and evidence needed to go ahead and develop their new DPA, to be drafted for consultation in late 2011.

"Doing the housing study with .id has actually changed our priorities” Melissa continues. “Our next item on the agenda was to conduct an activity centre review, but now we realise that a greater priority for us is to review mixed use development and how we can create more local employment opportunities.”

 

Which product did they use?

.id has developed a specific consulting methodology, called housing.id, for quantifying the demand and supply of housing across a local government area.