The introduction of Environment and Food Production Areas will help protect vital agricultural lands, surrounding metropolitan Adelaide, from the threat of urban sprawl by reducing the ability to subdivide land for housing development.
The protected areas work in a similar way to the Character Preservation Areas in the Barossa Valley and McLaren Vale which have been successfully in place since 2012.
The Environment and Food Production Areas have been introduced to:
The new protection areas cover the rural areas of the Adelaide Plains, Alexandrina, Light and Murray Bridge Councils. They do not overlap with the already protected rural areas within the Barossa Character Preservation Act 2012.
South Australia’s food producing and agricultural areas are one of our primary and premium industries which we are all immensely proud of and which we want to preserve and protect.
Protecting these areas, in turn, protects our food security, economic growth, local jobs, prized tourism areas and our state’s global reputation as a premium producer of food and wine.
To help preserve and support rural areas which are vital to South Australia’s success, new protections only affect development proposals for land division for new housing and do not affect development proposals for new buildings, structures or land division for other purposes.
The establishment of these new protected areas will have no effect on regular home and land owners in these areas, unless they intend to apply to divide land for new housing.
Those who intend to divide land for new housing on land zoned as rural living within an Environment and Food Production Area, have been given a two year period in which they may receive approval for land division for the purposes of housing.
Any application made during this period must adhere to the current land division rules that were in place from December 2015 within the local Development Plan which require land to be large enough to support subdivision. After the two year period – from 1 April 2019 – land division creating additional allotments to be used for residential development will not be permitted within the these important protected areas.
During April 2017, property owners of rural living zoned land within these protected areas, were directly informed of the changes and what it means for them.
| Status | Milestone |
|---|---|
January 2013 | The Barossa and McLaren Vale Character Preservation Acts came into operation |
April 2016 | Environment and Food Protection Areas introduced |
April 2017 | Beginning of the last two year period in which to lodge a land division application in rural living zones |
May to June 2017 | Public information sessions |
| April 2019 | Land divisions creating additional allotments used for residential development no longer permitted within rural living zones |
Should you wish to speak to someone in further detail about the impacts of the EFPAs on land division in rural living areas, please contact one of the following affected Councils:
To talk about land division generally, please contact DPTI on (08) 7109 7060.
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