Local councils are best placed to make development assessment decisions, a majority of respondents to a survey believe.

The results of the survey of more than 500 South Australians – commissioned by the Local Government Association and conducted by McGregor Tan Research – reveal concern about the direction of the State Government’s planning system reforms.

However, the State Government is unlikely to make significant change to its reforms, saying it won’t be “reinventing the wheel”.

The reforms, introduced into Parliament by Planning Minister John Rau but not yet debated, would create regional boards with representatives from several councils, independent planners and the State Government in each region, to assess development applications.

A new planning commission would also be set up to supervise the regional boards to ensure consistency in state-wide planning.

However, more than half of those surveyed – 59 per cent – said that local councils were best placed to manage the assessment of development applications.

More than half of respondents also said that elected council members should be the decision-makers on zoning rules.

Two thirds of respondents said that the role of independent experts should be to advise local council members about the planning and development system.

“It certainly appears that elements of the Government’s Planning, Development and Infrastructure Bill, which seeks to centralise decision-making and squeeze communities and their local representatives out of development assessment, are at odds with public views,” said LGA president Dave Burgess.

“This survey returned results that clearly indicate community members want to be part of the planning process and they want the process managed by their local council.

“The majority of respondents clearly felt that local councils have a strong role to play in all aspects of the planning system…

“Communities also expect state and local government to work together.”

However, a spokesperson for the State Government told InDaily that “the result is unsurprising given the complexity of the subject, and survey results can be influenced by a number of factors”.

“(The planning system reform Bill) follows over two years of consultation and a report from the Expert Panel on Planning Reform.

“The Bill is currently before the house and while improvements to existing policy in the Bill are welcome, reinventing the wheel won’t happen.

“Under the present Bill before the house, it is envisaged that local governments will have new roles in planning.

“It is intended that local governments will have an integral lead role in engaging local communities upfront when key planning policy decisions are formed which directly impact upon a community.

“This is achieved through the current Bill by the introduction of a ‘Community Engagement Charter’.”

But the proposed charter – which would encourage innovative methods of community consultation early in the process of zoning and development – did not impress the Local Government Association when it was announced as part of the reforms package last year.

Then president of the LGA David O’Loughlin argued that the local knowledge and experience of councils would not be as effective if subsumed into a regional body.