Case study – City of Unley Section 30 review

One of the problems in conducting a Section 30 review in older, established areas is the need to recognise and preserve the areas that define the character of the city, while still allowing for development of an appropriate type to allow the city to grow and increase in diversity.

The City of Unley recently used their .id community profile to assist in conducting their Section 30 review.

A Section 30 review is a requirement of the SA Development Act. It focuses on the changing development needs of an area to ensure that the council’s development plan is appropriate for the future needs of the city.

David Brown, Principal Policy Planner for the City of Unley explains:

“We needed to map out our strategies for the future, while being sympathetic to the nature and character of our city.  To do this, we looked closely at four major areas of strategy:

• Economic
• Environmental
• Social
• Residential

We needed to understand Unley’s population trends, how household sizes were changing, dwelling density and dwelling type.  The .id community profile enabled us to look at these issues at a suburb level – so we could recognise key differences within our council boundaries.

Also, consistency is important. When we engage consultants, such as our recent social development strategy conducted by UPRS, we supply consistent demographic data for them to use, so we are not using disparate data sets.”

The Unley .id community profile supplied the majority of information for the Unley Section 30 review, and will also form the basis for future reviews.

.id is a team of demographers, population forecasters, spatial planners, urban economists, and data experts who use a unique combination of online tools and consulting to help governments and organisations understand their local areas. Access our free demographic resources here