Concordia Code Amendment: rezoning land for residential development

Consultation has concluded

Help shape the planning rules for future development in the Concordia growth area, near Gawler.

What's being decided?

The South Australian Government has identified about 995 hectares of rural land at Concordia, near Gawler, to be rezoned to provide more homes for South Australians.

The draft Concordia Code Amendment proposes rezoning about 971 ha to Master Planned Neighbourhood Zone and about 24 ha to Employment Zone.

It is anticipated that about 10,000 to 12,000 additional homes could be built in the Concordia growth area over the next 30 years, accommodating about 25-30,000 new residents.

A master planned community of this size would include town centres, healthcare, education, major open space, public transport and other infrastructure.

Draft changes to the planning rules aim to support a vibrant community with:

  • a new town centre and multiple shopping precincts, each with a main street, providing focal points for residents and visitors
  • a variety of housing types and densities, including affordable homes
  • areas of open space for recreation that also protect and enhance the environment
  • greater tree protections and more plantings
  • a new 24 ha employment zone for business, commercial and low-impact, light-industrial activities
  • social infrastructure such as education, community services and emergency services.

A new ‘Emerging Main Street Subzone’ is proposed as part of the Code amendment to enable flexibility in how activity centres develop over time, while guiding the development of main streets to create a township character, encouraging pedestrian activity, and focusing housing density around centres to promote walkable neighbourhoods.

The Concordia Code Amendment also proposes a new way to reserve land for social infrastructure, such as schools, community facilities, ambulance and fire stations by identifying the key essential facilities, their size and where they could be located on a ‘land use’ concept plan.

A ‘basic infrastructure’ concept plan shows where the main road network and stormwater management may be located, in-line with infrastructure planning.

Background

This Code amendment is part of the South Australian Government’s Housing Roadmap and will play an important role in delivering more residential land allotments to market and providing more affordable homes for South Australians.

The area identified to be rezoned is entirely outside of the Barossa Valley Character Preservation District and Environment and Food Production Areas.

The Department for Housing and Urban Development has worked with state and local government, landowners and service providers to identify infrastructure needs to support growth in the Concordia area, including roads, utilities, stormwater infrastructure, and community services.

Rezoning will not occur until infrastructure requirements, costs and timing have been finalised.

Concordia was first identified as a housing growth area in the 30-year Plan for Greater Adelaide, published in 2010 and most recently in the Greater Adelaide Regional Plan, published in 2025.

Rezoning land at Concordia is part of the single largest release of residential land in the state’s history, including land at Onkaparinga Heights, Sellicks Beach and Dry Creek.

Get involved

Find out more:

As us a question by:

Have your say by:

  • taking our online survey
  • emailing a submission to: PlanSASubmissions@sa.gov.au (Subject: Submission - Concordia Code Amendment)
  • posting your feedback to: Code Amendment Team, GPO Box 1815, Adelaide, SA 5001

What are the next steps?

We will consider your feedback to finalise the draft Concordia Code Amendment.

We will prepare an engagement report outlining what we heard during consultation and how the feedback was considered.

We will provide the Code amendment and engagement report to the Minister for Planning for his consideration and will publish the finalised Code amendment and engagement report on this website and the PlanSA website.

We will publish submissions as part of the engagement report, including company details as part of the engagement report, but personal addresses, email addresses or phone numbers will not be published.


Help shape the planning rules for future development in the Concordia growth area, near Gawler.

What's being decided?

The South Australian Government has identified about 995 hectares of rural land at Concordia, near Gawler, to be rezoned to provide more homes for South Australians.

The draft Concordia Code Amendment proposes rezoning about 971 ha to Master Planned Neighbourhood Zone and about 24 ha to Employment Zone.

It is anticipated that about 10,000 to 12,000 additional homes could be built in the Concordia growth area over the next 30 years, accommodating about 25-30,000 new residents.

A master planned community of this size would include town centres, healthcare, education, major open space, public transport and other infrastructure.

Draft changes to the planning rules aim to support a vibrant community with:

  • a new town centre and multiple shopping precincts, each with a main street, providing focal points for residents and visitors
  • a variety of housing types and densities, including affordable homes
  • areas of open space for recreation that also protect and enhance the environment
  • greater tree protections and more plantings
  • a new 24 ha employment zone for business, commercial and low-impact, light-industrial activities
  • social infrastructure such as education, community services and emergency services.

A new ‘Emerging Main Street Subzone’ is proposed as part of the Code amendment to enable flexibility in how activity centres develop over time, while guiding the development of main streets to create a township character, encouraging pedestrian activity, and focusing housing density around centres to promote walkable neighbourhoods.

The Concordia Code Amendment also proposes a new way to reserve land for social infrastructure, such as schools, community facilities, ambulance and fire stations by identifying the key essential facilities, their size and where they could be located on a ‘land use’ concept plan.

A ‘basic infrastructure’ concept plan shows where the main road network and stormwater management may be located, in-line with infrastructure planning.

Background

This Code amendment is part of the South Australian Government’s Housing Roadmap and will play an important role in delivering more residential land allotments to market and providing more affordable homes for South Australians.

The area identified to be rezoned is entirely outside of the Barossa Valley Character Preservation District and Environment and Food Production Areas.

The Department for Housing and Urban Development has worked with state and local government, landowners and service providers to identify infrastructure needs to support growth in the Concordia area, including roads, utilities, stormwater infrastructure, and community services.

Rezoning will not occur until infrastructure requirements, costs and timing have been finalised.

Concordia was first identified as a housing growth area in the 30-year Plan for Greater Adelaide, published in 2010 and most recently in the Greater Adelaide Regional Plan, published in 2025.

Rezoning land at Concordia is part of the single largest release of residential land in the state’s history, including land at Onkaparinga Heights, Sellicks Beach and Dry Creek.

Get involved

Find out more:

As us a question by:

Have your say by:

  • taking our online survey
  • emailing a submission to: PlanSASubmissions@sa.gov.au (Subject: Submission - Concordia Code Amendment)
  • posting your feedback to: Code Amendment Team, GPO Box 1815, Adelaide, SA 5001

What are the next steps?

We will consider your feedback to finalise the draft Concordia Code Amendment.

We will prepare an engagement report outlining what we heard during consultation and how the feedback was considered.

We will provide the Code amendment and engagement report to the Minister for Planning for his consideration and will publish the finalised Code amendment and engagement report on this website and the PlanSA website.

We will publish submissions as part of the engagement report, including company details as part of the engagement report, but personal addresses, email addresses or phone numbers will not be published.


Consultation has concluded

  • Concordia Code Amendment finalised

    The Concordia Code Amendment has now been finalised and adopted by the Minister for Planning.

    Changes to the Code amendment were made in response to feedback received from affected landowners, community, industry, local and state government and advocacy groups.

    Key changes include:

    • applying the new ‘Coordinated Development Overlay’ across the growth area, which defers urban development until removed by the Minister for Planning, to ensure agreements are in place to provide all necessary essential infrastructure before development
    • applying a new ‘Infrastructure Coordination Overlay’ across the growth area, to ensure land use is coordinated with delivering necessary services and infrastructure and aligns with the infrastructure delivery scheme for Concordia
    • reducing the size of the Employment Zone from 24 ha to 15 ha, to better align with the Employment Land Assessment recommendations
    • improvements to the Emerging Main Street Subzone to allow a broader range of land uses fronting main streets and improve terminology and consistency
    • updates to the basic infrastructure concept plan to:
      • provide space for a landscaped buffer or mound between the potential link road (and associated infrastructure) and rural land/the Character Preservation District
      • show potential road upgrades outside of the growth area south of Calton Road, including a possible future road extending in a south-west direction from the Cheek Avenue and Calton Road intersection
    • updates to the land use concept plan, particularly relating to:
      • buffers and landscaping along Barossa Valley Way, potential link roads and gateways to the growth area
      • increasing the amount of land set aside for emergency services and state schools, including setting aside land for a potential future health facility
      • increasing the size and extent of the Neighbourhood Activity Centre to better reflect the Concordia Master Plan
      • extending the shared path networks to better show connections with the proposed road network.

    The engagement report includes full details of the feedback received and the changes made as a result.

    Next steps

    To support the Concordia Code Amendment, work is underway to develop an infrastructure scheme to ensure the infrastructure requirements to service future housing within the Concordia growth area are well-understood and planned for.

    The South Australian Government has appointed Iain McPhillips as the Scheme Coordinator to oversee developing the infrastructure scheme.

    The draft infrastructure scheme is currently being prepared and will be finalised in consultation with affected landowners and key government and industry stakeholders.

  • Update: draft Concordia Code Amendment – what we heard

    Consultation on the draft Concordia Code Amendment was open from 19 June to 31 July 2025.

    More than 190 submissions were received from affected landowners, community, councils, state government agencies, industry, advocacy organisations and MPs.

    Submissions provided a range of feedback and comments on a wide range of topics.

    The themes receiving the greatest number of mentions in submissions were:

    • roads and traffic congestion
    • infrastructure
    • housing density
    • developing on agricultural land
    • environment.

    Read our ‘What we heard’ summary for more details about the feedback received.

    All feedback is now being collated and carefully considered in finalising the Concordia Code Amendment to be submitted to the Minister for Planning.