The Property Council of Australia (SA Division) has called for a radical overhaul of the Land Management Corporation's role and function, seeking to recast it as the state's pre-eminent agency for delivering urban renewal projects.
Following the release of a major poll that found Adelaide to be Australia's most liveable city, the Property Council has released its public policy paper 'Metropolitan Authority - A New Governance Model for Future Communities', with a view to massively boosting Adelaide's growth capacity through urban infill.
Property Council’s executive director (SA) Nathan Paine said that the poll, titled 'My City: The People's Verdict', showed that South Australian's believe the State Government was doing a good job in releasing new land for housing. However, with the 30- Year Plan for Greater Adelaide setting a target of housing 70 per cent of the state's population growth within the existing area, a 'super-charged' approach to delivering urban infill is urgently needed.
"The urban infill task at hand is unprecedented and national and international experience shows that a super-charged agency is critical to delivering a strategic approach to delivering new communities and affordable housing outcomes," Paine said.
"The mammoth task of converting upzoned transit corridors and infill sites to new suburbs must be handed to a dedicated and powerful agency, such as the metropolitan authority model used in other states and internationally.
"The Land Management Corporation is ideally placed to form the backbone of this new agency."
The 2009 tour of Transit-Oriented Developments and the 2010 showed that a metropolitan authority required strong leadership and clear direction to function, as well as legislative grunt to ensure it acted beyond electoral cycles and above jurisdictional boundaries.
The Land Management Corporation is familiar with development processes but has traditionally focused on greenfield development.
Paine said that as Land Management Corporation's supplies of greenfield land are now dwindling, it must be freed up to take on infill responsibilities as a metropolitan authority.
"Our polling shows that out of the preferred housing types to manage growth, 68 per cent of Adelaideans either strongly supported or supported housing conversion of old sites to apartments and townhouses.
"Unless we make urban infill a priority and put in place the mechanisms to facilitate the delivery of new communities, it will be difficult to achieve the Government's infill targets.
"Affordable housing is one of the key factors that makes Adelaide so liveable, and a metropolitan authority is critical to us maintaining that advantage."
