NICK SHARPLEY: Is Roger Frinsdorf serious (Letters to the Editor, InDaily, 29 October 2013)?  I was astounded to discover that Adelaide used have a comprehensive tram network, one that rivalled Melbourne at the time, only to rip it up. What manner of madness is that?

Back to Roger, and I quote: “We have a great system of O-Bahn buses … “ Clearly he lives on the O-Bahn route and is of the belief that Adelaide consists only of the four or so suburbs that the O-Bahn serves. Here’s another gem: “I can also not understand why heavy metal trams with huge energy consumptions” … ok, and the carbon footprint considerations of the cars on the road and the buses is nothing to worry about. It continues: “and which totally disable lines when one breaks down”, and that isn’t the case on the O-Bahn? Do the buses move through each other via osmosis?

Trams are a wonderful system of transport, this can be seen by visiting any of the world cities that employ them. Melbourne is a great example.

Electricity is cleaner than burning liquid fuels, the trams can carry far more passengers per black balloon, and if passenger deaths are the concern then perhaps instead of blaming the trams maybe look more toward the idiot drivers or careless passengers.

CAROL FAULKNER: When it comes to planning and development, it’s pretty much impossible for the average person to keep up with the government’s reviews, plans, policies, projects and Ministerial Development Plan Amendments (DPAs, aka rezonings).

As an example, the recently approved Inner Metropolitan Growth DPA (Up, up and away: 18,500 homes for inner city, InDaily, 29 October 2013) is part of the Inner Metropolitan Growth Project which is part of the 30-Year Plan for Greater Adelaide which was born from the 2008 Planning and Development Review.

Eyes already glazing over? Bear with me.

Another big planning review is currently underway and therefore the Coalition for Planning Reform, which represents 120 community groups, made a reasonable call for Planning Minister John Rau to put off making any big rezoning decisions until the present review has been completed. As usual, the Minister wasn’t listening. Despite making a big song and dance about the community’s participation in the current planning review, the government is crashing ahead with strongly opposed DPAs, some of which the community had little or no say in.

This calls into question the true nature of the current planning review and whether, rather than putting people back into the planning process, it’s all smoke and mirrors and we’re being dudded again. The latest rezoning of inner city suburbs shows the government is steadfastly adhering to the 30-Year Plan.

Everyone should be clear about one critical fact – the 30-Year Plan is not about providing the necessary housing for a naturally growing population. As explained in the report of the 2008 review, the plan was to create a supply of affordable housing that would act as a “magnet” for population growth. Affordable housing was deemed “critical to attracting overseas migrants”, with the overall premise being that population growth arising from affordable housing would drive a strong economy.

So the argument about what parts of Greater Adelaide should or shouldn’t be rezoned for denser living is a secondary one. The main question we need to ask ourselves is should we be deliberately attracting population growth? I’m more than willing to hear all the arguments for and against, but I’m not willing to listen to any more spin from the government that paints the 30-Year Plan’s population figures as an unavoidable reality rather than the aspirational target it is – a target that was endorsed by Cabinet without any public consensus.

If the government seriously wants to have a conversation with the citizens of South Australia about planning and development, it has to start with an honest and open discussion about how many people can sustainably live here.

Send us letters via email to [email protected], including your full name. The editor reserves the right to edit letters.

Or join the discussion on our Facebook page.