The Director of Holmes Dyer was responsible for initiating the rezoning of agricultural land at Mt Barker to urban land, capable of supporting 15,000 – 20,000 new residents over 20 – 30 years.
The rezoning process was predicated on obtaining the agreement of all major landowners in the area to fund the investigations necessary to underpin a rezoning decision.A funding mechansim was establihsed on a per-hectare contribution basis, as well as a clear understanding that the ensuing planning strategies and policies would be formulated on sound planning grounds without reference to ownership, knowing always that the State Government would ultimately determine the acceptability of all policies and plans.
This approach was fundamental to establishing the preferred location of new centres, key transport infrastructure, overhead power line routes, service access and staging implications.The scale of the project has facilitated project commencement on multiple fronts.
Mt Barker was the first project to establish a formal transport infrastructure fund to provide capital for the delivery of shared infrastructure.The local Council has since introduced a local recreation and community services fund to supplement this.
