First Practice Direction issued under the PDI Act — a must read if you deal with the EFPA’s

22 November 2017

On 21 November 2017 the Chair of the State Planning Commission issued the first Practice Direction under section 42 of the Planning, Development and Infrastructure Act 2016 (“the Act”) – the State Planning Commission Practice Direction (Environment and Food Production Areas – Greater Adelaide) 2017 (“Practice Direction 1”).

Practice Direction 1 concerns land divisions determined by councils and the State Commission Assessment Panel under section 7 of the Act within environment and food production areas (“EFPA’s”).

Of particular relevance, Clause 5 of Part 2 of Practice Direction 1 provides that:

 If a relevant authority grants a development approval for the division of land in an environment and food production area that creates 1 or more additional allotments, the relevant authority must include a statement on the relevant development approval to the effect that the additional allotments must not be used for residential purposes by virtue of the operation of section 7 of the Act.

 The effect of this is that councils which have EFPA’s within their area, must ensure that their Decision Notification Forms issued for land divisions in an EFPA contain the following statement “the allotments created in this division must not be used for residential purposes by virtue of the operation of section 7 of the Planning, Development and Infrastructure Act 2016”.  The statement can contain additional detail concerning the operation of section 7 and the definition of “residential development”.

Given that section 7(5)(e) of the Act provides that “a development authorisation granted in relation to (a land division) will be taken to be subject to the condition that the additional allotments created will not be used for residential purposes”, we recommend that the statement be incorporated as a condition on development authorisations, together with the statement as the reason for the condition.

Further, given the importance of section 7 for land divisions in EFPA’s, we recommend that the condition and note be placed in a prominent position on the DNF.

Please do not hesitate to contact Victoria Shute on 8113 7140 or via email at vshute@kelledyjones.com.au for more information