Community consultation on the idea put forward by the State Planning Commission is now underway, with future demolition of many homes potentially hingeing on new designs meeting streetscape standards.

Planning Minister Nick Champion referred the recommendation for public consultation as he today announced two other proposals from the commission that would be implemented to create stronger rules to protect suburban historic charm.

Homeowners likely to be most affected are those living in suburbs including Unley, Burnside, Mitcham, Norwood, Prospect and Hindmarsh or regional historic towns where more cottages, villas or bungalows were built from 1836 onwards to the mid 1900s.

Champion has approved a proposal for councils to get more guidance and support to elevate more of their Character Areas to Historic Areas.

This would bring more demolition approval controls into play, particularly for those living in homes such as a villa in Unley Park or a Tudor-style in Toorak Gardens.

Champion also backed a proposal for councils to review and update character and historic area statements to identify gaps – with more focus on exploring what streetscapes are bespoke to each council area and to then give councils better tools to make assessments.

Character areas currently have no demolition controls on particular buildings so homeowners can more easily knock over old homes, while elevating them to historic areas would then bring demolition approvals into play.

“We are keen to address the community’s desire to better protect character streetscapes,” Champion said.

“The Expert Panel and I fully support the (Planning) Commission’s proposal to better protect SA’s character areas and have agreed to implement these proposals.”

Councils will need to consult with the community before making any changes but State Planning Commission chair Craig Holden said the idea was for easier to use guidelines and support in identifying what character and heritage is to council areas.

“Councils will have to engage with their communities and allocate the funds if they seriously want to improve the retention of character in established suburbs,” he said.

“We are very aware of community concern around character and about our suburbs, about our streetscapes.

“We have received submissions from council CEOs and the community alliance, there have been delegations to the commission regarding concerns about our streetscapes, it’s the loss of character more so in established suburbs.”

He said the commission and councils recognised some homes in character or heritage areas may not individually have historic value.

This is the reason why there was now consultation about possibly introducing rules around allowing demolition so that councils and communities then have more input regarding what is built in its place.

The idea was about having “a good enough quality of design” to protect the character of the streetscapes, Holden said, adding that “we want to raise the bar on the quality of the replacement building to better emulate character”.

“What we are saying to councils is we have been listening to you, we have been listening to your concerns,” he said.