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Adelaide's 30-year plan for urban growth explained

An aerial view of the Adelaide CBD streets and buildings.
Projections are for a city of nearing 2 million people.(ABC News: Tom Fedorowytsch)
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Adelaide has achieved high rankings in lists of the world's most liveable cities, but the South Australian capital has faced a "brain drain" of young professionals in recent years, and urban sprawl has pushed suburban boundaries further north and south.

The South Australian Government first released its long-term plan for future growth in 2010, recently updating it to cut back population growth forecasts and amend earmarked development pockets in the inner suburbs.

What is the 30-year plan for greater Adelaide?

It is the Government's pitch for Adelaide to become more vibrant but compact, with promises of higher-density housing, public transport improvements, and neighbourhoods geared towards pedestrians and cyclists with well-maintained parks and gardens.

There are 14 guiding principles in the plan, including to achieve a carbon-neutral city, world-class design standards, healthier communities and state economic growth.

Colourful walls of CBD apartments in Adelaide.
The grand plan imagines Adelaide being more like Copenhagen.(ABC News: Tom Fedorowytsch)

The grand plan imagines Adelaide being more like Copenhagen, Brooklyn or Melbourne, and among hip aspirations are numerous references to retaining heritage suburbs and keeping nearby small towns safe from the wrecking ball.

In efforts to realise its vision, the Government has been tinkering with planning laws, enforcing an urban growth boundary, releasing public land for more development and spending money on transport projects.

How might Adelaide look in three decades?

Current population density is fewer than 1,400 people per square kilometre, with the plan calling for a halt to urban sprawl by building new and higher-density housing in existing suburbia.

Most Adelaide buildings would remain one to three storeys high, but there would be more townhouses, granny flats and a push for laneway housing.

Busy transport corridors could be flanked by mixed-use buildings of up to six storeys, with much taller apartment buildings in the CBD, seaside Glenelg, alongside the city ring of parklands, and at redevelopment sites such as where the Le Cornu furniture warehouse stood near Anzac Highway.

There are design guidelines which aim to ensure environmentally friendly buildings integrate well with existing suburban landscapes.

Will the suburbs have more high-rise apartments?

The original plan brought a backlash from some councils, including Burnside and Unley, that the character of heritage neighbourhoods would be destroyed because of high-rise development.

The State Government said it was listening to those concerns and would restrict taller buildings to the CBD and specific redevelopment sites, plus near the parklands and parts of busy arterial roads, including Henley Beach Road and Anzac Highway.

North Adelaide, Norwood and Parkside are cited as desirable suburbs with the type of increased density the rest of Adelaide might emulate.

Stormwater ponds in a new housing development.
New housing development is more diverse and on smaller sites, such as at Lightsview.(ABC News: Tom Fedorowytsch)

Thousands of old Housing Trust homes are being demolished and sites subdivided for two dwellings.

Current urban infill efforts at Mawson Lakes, Lightsview and Tonsley is seeing a greater mix of housing types than the suburbs created back in the 1980s and '90s.

Any more cheap land releases in outer suburbs?

The fastest growing areas are on the edges of the Adelaide metropolitan area — think Mount Barker, Seaford and Gawler — where house and land packages are cheaper, but encroaching on farms and vineyards.

An aerial view of vineyards and roads of the Barossa Valley.
The vineyards to the north and south of Adelaide are highly valued by drinkers, tourists and local sightseers.(Supplied: SA Government)

The 30-year vision is backed by government policies to limit development in the Barossa Valley and McLaren Vale wine regions, as the urban growth boundary aims to protect the food bowls surrounding Adelaide.

Three-quarters of Adelaide's new housing is in the established suburbs, but there is still land set aside on the fringes to ensure a future steady supply of more affordable housing.

There is enough new land for 20 years, helped by new suburbs having increasingly smaller blocks and homes.

How quickly will Adelaide grow under the plan?

The 2016 population was 1.43 million people, making Adelaide one of the slowest-growing capital cities in Australia.

The forecast is for 1.97 million people by 2045, with a need for an extra 248,000 homes.

Growth projections in the 30-year manifesto have been lowered, with slowing foreign arrivals and an exodus of young people to the eastern states cited as factors.

An aerial view over the south east suburbs of Adelaide and the foothills.
There is faster growth in the Adelaide Hills since the new freeway route gave easier access in recent years.(ABC News: Tom Fedorowytsch)

The Property Council says Adelaide's planning laws do too little to encourage new development, while regional cities and towns also want initiatives which would give them a bigger slice of the action.

An ageing population, coupled with a significant increase in single-person households, might keep pushing demand for smaller homes and better public transport across Adelaide.