Adelaide Hills Fleurieu and Kangaroo Island Regional Roadmap 2013-2016: Growing a healthy, resilient, well connected and prosperous region

The roadmap focuses on economic development that adds value to the social and environmental capital of local communities. The measure for success in the roadmap is the maintenance of sustainable communities as defined by the Commonwealth Government's Sustainable Australia: Sustainable Communities Strategy.

The development of infrastructure plays a key role in facilitating sustainable communities and is a significant focus of this roadmap. A priority for the region is to develop access infrastructure like roads, ports, river facilities and coastal boating facilities as well as technologies like broadband. The context for this priority is improving connectivity to commercial and labour markets, services and social participation opportunities for local communities.

The Roadmap points out the importance of regional planning. Currently the mainland part of the region and Kangaroo Island are subject to different State Government planning frameworks that deliver fundamentally different economic divers. In order to promote the region as a whole, a regional Structure Plan is required to complement the draft Regional Integrated Transport and Land use Plan currently being developed by the South Australian Department of Planning and Infrastructure. This is another priority for the region.

The actions and priorities of the roadmap are supported by a discussion of strengths, weaknesses and opportunities in an evidence based framework that focuses on human and social capital, physical and natural capital and economic capital.

The key message of the roadmap is that economic growth should contribute to the sustainability of the clusters of local communities that make up the region. The level of integration of these local communities into a regional network will determine the performance of the region as a whole.