Urban and regional planner Adam Mrotek has worked across several growth councils and enjoys his current position as Manager, Projects & Development Policy at South Australia’s largest metropolitan council, the City of Onkaparinga.
The region is located on the southern fringe of Adelaide, between 25 and 40 kilometres from the capital.
More than 170,000 residents live and work across an area of 518 square kilometres.
“While we have a large urban population, about 75 per cent of the city is rural and primary production,” Mr Mrotek said.
“Our local economy is driven by established and emerging small, medium and large enterprises and its wine, food and tourism underpin the rural and coastal areas.
“If you like your wine you will know the world famous wine region of McLaren Vale, which is located in our region.”
Mr Mrotek said the blend of coastline, plains and hill landscapes, plus a rich settlement history, makes the City of Onkaparinga “an enviable place to live, visit and work.” It is also the focus of a world heritage bid.
Councillor Hazel Wainwright nominated Mr Mrotek as a Local Government Focus ‘High Achiever’. Cr Wainwright cited Mr Mrotek’s hard work and “fantastic reputation in planning across South Australian councils.”
Mr Mrotek has spent over two decades in local government. He is a qualified urban and regional planner and has a Graduate Diploma in Environmental Studies and Masters in Business Administration.
“Over my 23 years in local government I have worked at a number of larger growth councils in various management roles where I have been responsible for development assessment and policy, corporate and strategic planning, economic development and project management,” he said.
“I enjoy operating across the business from visioning to on-the-ground delivery of projects. This reflects my creative spatial skills and interest in longer-term city building and, at the same time my desire to organise, plan and deliver shorter-term place-based projects.
“I think as an urban and regional planner at heart you are always aspiring to make cities and regions more liveable.”
Mr Mrotek said building strong teams is essential in project development and helping to foster a good working environment is something he strives towards.
“In the earlier part of my career, which centred around development assessment, I’m proud to have been involved in building strong team cultures. This primarily focused on the bigger picture and facilitated several great outcomes.
“In recent years I have had the opportunity to lead a number of significant master planning exercises and major projects and it has been great to see these come to fruition.”
He said the aspect of working in local government that he most values is the opportunity to directly impact the community.
“I love the diversity and variety of local government. You never feel you fully know the business and there are lots of learning opportunities. I also work with a really passionate group of committed professionals and what we can come up with together is always better than what we could ever do individually.
“It sounds clichéd but local government is at the community coalface, so we have the greatest opportunity to make a positive impact on the day-to-day lives our communities.”
A challenge in his role is juggling varying external needs; he said the biggest difficulties are “managing many stakeholders and their expectations, communicating complex matters in a way that can be easily understood and finding practical solutions to challenging problems”.
Into the future, a focus at Onkaparinga will be enriching main streets and Mr Mrotek will happily be at the helm.
“There are some exciting challenges and opportunities in the pipeline for the City of Onkaparinga that I’m keen to lead, particularly around the economic and place-based activation of our centres and main streets.
“If we can further diversify our centres and main streets with increased residential, employment, recreation and entertainment, and match this with a high quality public realm, we’ll continue to be one of the most desirable places to live.”
