FREELING residents say they do not want their town to turn into another Mount Barker with valuable cropping land turned into housing.
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About 200 people packed into the Freeling Institute on Wednesday last week for a public hearing about the Light Regional Council's Freeling West Residential Development Plan Amendment.
The amendment would see 110 hectares of primary production land rezoned for residential development, allowing for an extra 1000 homes.
Speaking at the meeting, Kapunda resident Susan Shannon – who was also representing her husband GRDC southern panel chairman David Shannon – said that with only 4.6 per cent of South Australia's land devoted to producing crops, it would be a shame to see such productive land lost.
"Freeling boasts some of the most productive and fertile land in Australia. Housing could be located on land with lesser productive capacity," Dr Shannon said.
Speaking on behalf of developers Walton Rural Pty Ltd, local business owner Peter Whimpress said a greater population was needed in the town to support local trade.
"Freeling is a very rich agricultural region and I don't think anyone in the room disagrees that agricultural land is precious," he said.
"But a town needs to be populated so it can afford services all its citizens wish to have, like a chemist or hairdresser."
Member for Schubert Ivan Venning said it would be a shame to see such rich agricultural land lost to housing.
"I'm a farmer from Crystal Brook and when I drive through this area, the crops are always twice as good as mine," he said.
"The existing rail line and easement forms a natural buffer between farming activities and residential properties. If this natural buffer is lost and housing allowed on the western side of the train line, homes will be built directly alongside broadacre farming activities."
Mr Venning was one of the speakers at the meeting to call on the State Government to introduce a character-preservation bill for Freeling, similar to what it has enacted for protection against urban sprawl in the Barossa Valley and McLaren Vale.
A spokesperson for Acting Planning Minister Patrick Conlon said Planning Minister John Rau would not review the Freeling West Residential DPA until the Light Regional Council had completed its consultation and made a final submission.
"While there are no current plans to pursue character preservation legislation for the Freeling area, any DPA submission from the council would need to satisfy strict infrastructure criteria in order to be considered," he said.
*Full report in Stock Journal, December 20 issue, 2012.
