Revocation of Practice Direction 11 and update to Practice Direction 12 - Conditions

The State Planning Commission has, in quick succession to previous amendments, revoked Practice Direction 11 (PD11) and amended Practice Direction 12 (PD12) pursuant to section 42(1) of the Planning, Development and Infrastructure Act 2016 (SA) (PDI Act). PD12 version 8 is available here, and came into operation on 10 October 2025. PD11 was revoked as of 10 October 2025 and no longer applies.

PD12 – Conditions

PD12 now specifies:

• the types of conditions that a relevant authority may impose pursuant to section 127(1)(b) and (2)(a) of the PDI Act; and
• standard conditions that apply to a deemed planning consent (granted pursuant to section 125(2) of the PDI Act) where the relevant authority has not imposed their own conditions; and
• conditions that must be imposed for certain classes of development if development authorisation is granted.
  
  (emphasis added)

PD12 now additionally includes the conditions previously contained in the revoked PD11 which provided standard conditions that apply to a deemed planning consent where the relevant authority has not imposed their own conditions. There have been no substantive amendments to the conditions, bar the change to the condition related to Regulated and Significant Trees as noted below. Our previous article published in October on these practice directions can be found here.

The table of conditions in PD12 now contains a new Column 3, in order to distinguish conditions applicable to a ‘Planning Consent’ and/or a ‘Deemed Planning Consent’.

If Planning Consent appears in Column 3, then the conditions in Column 2 must be imposed on a Planning Consent issued by a relevant authority pursuant to section 127(1) of the Act where a development incorporates the class of development specified in Column 1.

Similarly, if Deemed Planning Consent appears in Column 3, then the conditions in Column 2 must be imposed for the purpose of a Deemed Planning Consent taken to be granted pursuant to section 125(3) of the Act where a development incorporates the class of development specified in Column 1.

Regulated and Significant Trees

PD12 provides for a condition for applications that are for or include the killing, destruction or removal of a regulated or significant tree. This applies both to Planning Consents and Deemed Planning Consents, and a relevant authority must impose one of three conditions as detailed in our previous article. This includes a condition that requires a payment in lieu of planting replacement trees.

Previously the payment was to be calculated in accordance with the Planning, Development and Infrastructure (Fees) Notice. Under the amended PD12 the payment is now to be calculated in accordance with the Planning, Development and Infrastructure (Fees, Charges and Contributions) Regulations 2019.

Co-Located Housing

As noted in our previous article, PD12 version 7 introduced a new condition that must be imposed on a Planning Consent for co-located housing that prescribes:

‘Co-located housing must be undertaken in accordance with the approved scheme description for the development site.’

As previously noted, a scheme description is a prescribed requirement for development applications for co-located housing pursuant to section 119(1) of the PDI Act, through being prescribed in schedule 8 clause 2AA of the Planning, Development and Infrastructure (General) Regulations 2017 (SA) (PDI Regulations). The PDI Regulations define a community scheme description as ‘a description of the co-located housing and the proposed division of land in a form approved by the Minister and published on the SA planning portal’.

On 23 October 2025, a template community scheme description was published on the PlanSA website and can be viewed here. The template is a form of community scheme description approved by the Minister pursuant to Schedule 8 clause 2AA of the PDI Regulations. A ‘how to guide’ for co-located housing has also been published and can be viewed here.

For more specific information on any of the material contained in this article please contact Gavin Leydon on +61 8 8210 1225 or gleydon@normans.com.au or Cayleigh Stock on +61 8 8210 1294 or cstock@normans.com.au.