SPRA responded to the Local Government Participation and Elections Review with a detailed response that covered many topics including:
We appreciate that household formation rate, as well as population growth, impacts on demand for new housing. However, community concern over population growth cannot forever be swept under the carpet. The forecasted need for an extra 300,000 dwellings in the Greater Adelaide region over the next 30 years demonstrates a need for a major increase in our current housing stock. Extra housing will be traded off against residential amenity, the natural environment, open space, agricultural land and the tourism attractions of this State.
A recent Conservation Council study estimated that Adelaide is losing about 75,000 trees a year. We submit that this is due to a range of factors including population growth, housing densification policy, life-style changes, a failure of the planning system to reserve space around built structures for vegetation and trees, weak legislative protection for existing trees, commercial development and powerline clearance. Government must encourage Council policies and tree species selection.