Concordia Code Amendment: rezoning land for residential development

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:

• read the draft Concordia Code Amendment
• read our fact sheet on preserving land for community facilities and services
• read our fact sheet on infrastructure schemes
• Take a look at our frequently asked questions
• View a hard copy of the draft Code amendment at offices for Department for Housing and Urban Development, The Barossa Council, The Town of Gawler and Light Regional Council.

As us a question by:

• joining an online or in-person information session
• Ask a question using the questions tool

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.