Hello everyone!
We were delighted to celebrate at our SAILA Fresh + AILA SA End of Year Celebration last Wednesday with all our members and partners. A record of over 80 guests! It was amazing to celebrate with our newly registered Landscape Architects and announce the 2022 Rodney Beames Award winner, and all proudly sponsored by Adelaide Hills Sandstone.
2022 has been another successful year for the SA Chapter and we thank our amazing Executive team – Stephanie Rogers, Carina Green, Kate Elsworthy, Keith Davis, David Guy, Simon Lee, Mauricio Herrera Villa, Niveta Chawla and Sam Godakumbura
A huge thank you also to all our members who have contributed to the SA Chapter in so many ways.
Below is a wrap up of our advocacy activities from the last month to showcase some of the ongoing advocacy work of the SA Chapter Executive.
Old Parliament House Ceremony - South Australians for Climate Change
Janelle Arbon represented AILA SA at Old Parliament House last week to be part of a ceremony to present Deputy Premier of South Australia Hon. Susan Close an important statement of action to address climate change and to protect our unique environment. AILA SA is proud to be signatories for South Australians for Climate Action, a powerful coalition of leaders, organisations and businesses across all sectors with a program for action on climate change and biodiversity protection. Learn more here or link in bio: www.southaustraliansforclimateaction.org
Department for Infrastructure and Transport News
David Guy and Daniel Bennett met with senior representatives from DIT to discuss a range of issues that members have raised this past year. We are pleased to report the meeting included positive outcomes, including a review of the prequalification scheme for Landscape Architects in the new year, acknowledgement of some issues with LA's as disbursements on one particular project, value management of landscape scope on DIT and other projects, and a commitment to open and more rapid communications as issues arise. We look forward to a refreshed and productive relationship with DIT in 2023.
Planning System Review - Expert Panel Deputation
The Minister for Planning, Hon. Nick Champion MP, has commissioned an independent panel of planning experts to conduct a review of reforms to the planning system implementation, including:
- The Planning, Development and Infrastructure Act 2016
- the Planning and Design Code and related instruments, as it relates to infill policy, trees, character, heritage and car parking
- the ePlanning system, to ensure it is delivering an efficient and user-friendly process and platform
- the PlanSA website, to check usability and ease of community access to information.
Daniel presented our submission, with Janelle and Sally in attendance, to the Expert Panel on Monday 28 November and below is a summary of our key recommendations:
- Reviewing the interaction and conflicts between the Significant and Regulated Tree Act 2011 and the Code – this remains one of our principal concerns with the Code
- Performance of the Tree Offset Scheme – how is it performing? Has it worked? How many trees have been offset? How much has been paid into the Fund? Who has been administering the process, and what are the key findings?
- Reviewing the structure and approach of calculating tree offsets – we have provided detailed submissions on using a better calculation which is more meaningful, and is focused on ensuring developments work around existing Significant and Regulated Trees, and making the Scheme mandatory and not voluntary
- Reducing pressure on local and state governments to provide tree canopy cover on public land to make up for the losses on private land
- Protecting Significant and Regulated Trees on private property in the Code
- Integrating climate adaptation and mitigation within the Code
- Reviewing all State-funded projects and how the Code (and a revised Tree Offset Scheme) may be applied to health, education and infrastructure projects.
As always, please reach out to the AILA SA Executive if you have any ideas for how we can support your practice or professional development. The Executive has a Planning Session on 1 February 2023 and we welcome any ideas to input into this session.
This year AILA SA has selected Trees for Life as our annual charity, and we encourage members to donate a small amount to this great organisation. Donate Now
Wishing you all a relaxing holiday season, stay safe and away from flood waters, and see you all in 2023 to do it all again!
Janelle Arbon – AILA SA Vice President
Daniel Bennett – AILA SA President