by Shane Sody
If you wanted to build a new house, a shed or a carport, you would need to comply with planning rules.
You, or your builder, would need to be very careful that your plans fitted neatly within the rules laid out in SA's Planning and Design Code.
However if you are the State Government, and you want to build on the Adelaide Park Lands, you have no such constraints.
State Government building on your Park Lands is always approved, because the State Government can (and does) change the rules, to permit whatever it has already decided to build.
It can literally tear up any existing rules, and write new ones.
Examples
Aquatic Centre
Last year the State Planning Minister changed the zoning of Denise Norton Park / Pardipardinyilla (Park 2) to permit what would have otherwise been prohibited in one of your Parks. The project to put a $135 million aquatic and commercial centre recently destroyed dozens of mature trees.
Clear-felling dozens of mature trees, within a National Heritage listed Park would, of course, be illegal for anyone else. But here, it's all perfectly legal, because the Planning Minister, Nick Champion, simply changed the Park's zoning first, despite overwhelming public feedback urging the protection of this Park site.
2. Festival Plaza
The same thing is now happening to whittle away what remains of the shrinking open space in Festival Plaza, part of Tarntanya Wama (Park 26 of your Park Lands).
In April 2024, without any public consultation, nor any electoral mandate, the Premier Peter Malinauskas announced a private deal with one of Australia’s largest property developers, to put another office tower (of 38 storeys) on your public land.
The Premier on 9 April 2024, unveiling artist’s impressions of a new office tower on Festival Plaza. Pic: (ABC News: Rory McClaren)
The Government is now going through the charade of "public consultation" about the zoning changes that are required, to tick the legal boxes for formal approval.
Even though this public consultation supposedly is under way until 24 October, a decision at the end of the process will certainly endorse the State Government’s desire for massive new private development on this part of your Park Lands.
Festival Plaza - the limited open space that remains, part of your Park Lands, is set to be further reduced. Pic: Planning SA.
The fate of your Open, Public space is already sealed when Planning SA meekly describes your land as a “development site”. It acknowledges that:
“…changes to the planning rules through this code amendment would guide whether the proposed 38-storey building is the highest and best use of the precinct’s remaining development site.”
Planning SA admits that the Government’s desired changes are already in effect:
“…on an interim basis at the same time as being released for consultation to ensure undesirable development applications are not submitted for this important precinct while these rules are reviewed.”
What can you do?
This would appear to be yet another episode in the game of Park Lands “Whack-a-Mole” in which new Park reduction proposals continually keep popping up.
We’ve written to State MPs calling for a number of changes to SA laws, to protect your Park Lands from this and many other Park Lands attacks.
We’ve pointed out to MPs that current Park Lands legislation is broken.
This Act offers no protection to your Park Lands.
You can help us to end the “Whack a Mole” game for protection of your Park Lands.
The author of this article, Shane Sody, is the President of the Adelaide Park Lands Association and the editor of the semi-monthly newsletter, "Open Green Public".
Subscribe here.
https://adelaideparklands.m-pages.com/YWRrGW/adelaide-park-lands-assn-mailing
