The South Australian State Planning Commission has on 31 October 2025 released new Version 5 of Practice Direction 14, replacing Version 4 which was issued in 2023. This Practice Direction describes how a relevant authority is to consider an application for planning consent under the Planning, Development and Infrastructure Act 2016 (the Act), where the application proposes a ‘sensitive use’ for land or a change of land use to a ‘more sensitive use’. Under Schedule 8 clause 2A of the Act, an application for a ‘sensitive use’ in the case of a land division, or for a ‘more sensitive use’ for a change of land use otherwise, must be accompanied by several forms, including a Preliminary Site Investigation (PSI) in relation to site contamination under section 32A and Schedule 8 clause 2A(2)(b) of the Act, and a statement of site suitability under section 103C of the Act.
The key changes from Version 4 of this Practice Direction are:
- A seven-tier land use sensitivity hierarchy (LUSH) has been reduced to just four tiers, and the classes of development are spelled out much more comprehensively;
- The tiers are now as follows:
| Version 14 | Version 15 |
| 1. Residential class 1, and educational premises class 2 | 1. Residential / accommodation, and child care or primary school |
| 2. Residential class 2 | |
| 3. Open space/recreation area | 2. Parks and open space, tourism development, community uses, and commercial |
| 4. Educational premises class 2, hospitals, tourist accommodation, and community centre | |
| 5. Commercial class 1 | |
| 6. Primary production, and commercial class 2 | 3. Primary production |
| 7. Industrial | 4. Industrial / other |
*Note: while any change up these tiers will be considered a change to a ‘more sensitive use’, for the purpose of a land division, this tier 1 is the only one defined as a ‘sensitive use’ in itself, unless the allotment has already been created for a residential purpose and not been used for any other purpose since that time.
- Importantly, ‘Commercial class 2’ had covered land uses such as petrol stations, dry cleaners, warehouses and other commercial uses (other than shops, offices, consulting rooms, and the like), and had been in a separate tier to the lowest ‘Industrial’ tier which covered light, service, general or special industry. ‘Industrial / other’ in the new lowest tier now combines these, to a large degree. Consequently, pursuant to clause 5(5)(b) of the Practice Direction, a change in land use from, for instance, an industrial use to a petrol station, is no longer considered a ‘more sensitive use’ requiring an environmental consultant to prepare a PSI report or make a statement of site suitability;
- Where there is no current land use, a proposed use will not be taken to be a ‘more sensitive use’ if the site is vacant and covered by native vegetation. As a result no PSI or declaration is necessary for this change of use, either;
- A change of use from tourist accommodation to residential dwelling will also not be taken to be a change to a ‘more sensitive use’, where existing buildings are to be retained to comprise the dwellings.
This should significantly reduce the amount of application work required to develop and change the use of land in future.
If you have any questions regarding planning law, or construction and property law in general, please feel free to contact our team.
