Let the neighbours have a say!

This was not what people wanted on Unley Rd

Following a few articles in this week's paper. My thoughts are as follows

• Let the state government set the bigger picture for where they want development (because they will anyway) then
• Let Councils decide individually how that will achieve the desired outcome
• Let Councils work with their residents to come up with sensible heights, sensible block sizes, reasonable access to sunlight (currently in Unley that's 2 hours of direct sunshine per day on your northern windows in June) and setbacks.
• When a development application is lodged and it breaks any of the agreed rules then the proposal should run the gamut of the opinion of neighbours (usually the 8 nearest neighbours). The Council Assessment Panel (that now has 5 members, of whom only one is a Councillor) will then listen to what the neighbours have to say and make a decision based on the agreed planning rules
• Problems will continue to arise as people wish to build on boundaries, build a second storey addition and/or install solar panels and it is these that the CAP makes decisions about

People banded together can be very powerful.  Without such people power heritage as we now know it would have been depleted in the 1980's. Character zones in Black Forest would now be receiving applications for 3 storey town houses (as is happening along Fullarton Rd).