Children enjoying balloon artist at the 'Save Rymill Park Picnic Rally' 31 May
Since the 'Save Rymill Park' Picnic Rally on 31 May, the fight to save Rymill Park has undergone a number of twists and turns.
The day after the Picnic Rally, Transport Minister Stephen Mullighan said that people opposing the State Government’s $160m O-Bahn project were “being selfish. They enjoy their particular part of the city and they think it should be free from other people enjoying that part of the city.”
More than 1,000 people attended the picnic rally in Rymill Park on Sunday 31st May. On the day, 855 signatures were collected, opposing the Government's plan. A postcode analysis shows the Minister was wrong. 98 different postcodes were represented. While 17% of people came from the city itself, 21% were from the northern and northeastern suburbs which the O-Bahn services.
As if in recognition of the Government's weakened position, nine days later the Minister agreed to modify his plan, to reduce the extent of Rymill Park destruction, accepting some of APPA's proposals.
The new plan (above) limits the width of the roadway through Rymill Park (now it's intended only for buses, not for cars, trucks or trams.) The roadway will still be constructed via a cut and cover but will be backfilled for an additional 150 metres. More than 60 trees would still be lost as the trench is dug. Rundle Road, previously earmarked for closure, is to remain open for traffic, albeit narrowed.
The revised plan is not as bad as the original. However it still would impact severely with a giant gash through Rymill Park, and the tunnel emerging to ground level adjacent to the lake. APPA will continue to campaign to have the busway built entirely below ground (by boring rather than trenching) and emerge only in Grenfell Street, rather than next to the Rymill Park lake. Alternatively, APPA suggests that buses should remain on Rundle Road and East Terrace and receive priority over other traffic.
WE ARE NOT ALONE!
The Hon. John Darley, MLC (pictured) successfully moved on Wednesday 17 June to establish a Select Committee to investigate all aspects of the Government's proposed O-Bahn Access Project, including any alternative options and any cost-benefit analyses. Importantly the Select Committee will also be looking at "likely adverse impacts on Rymill Park".
DEVELOPMENT PLAN AMENDMENT A TROJAN HORSE?
Adelaide conservation and restoration consultant Tim Simpson has likened Government moves to push through the Park Lands Zone DPA (which supports the O-Bahn project) to a 'Trojan horse'.
Last February, the State Government offered what it had hoped would be a welcome public transport initiative (the O-Bahn City Access project). The Government is now seeking a change to the law to enable its construction. The change is called a Ministerial Development Plan Amendment (DPA) which is on consultation until 15th July.
Tim Simpson suggests that, like the Greek soldiers who were hidden inside the Trojan horse, the DPA would allow the gates to be opened for an unlimited number of future public and private "infrastructure" projects to be built on the Park Lands.
In his words:
The Park Lands Zone DPA includes critical clauses which make it something of a Trojan horse in planning terms. The DPA proposes that approval for infrastructure development, which importantly it defines as including projects not undertaken by the State, be on 'merit' rather than 'non-complying' as it is now. The change will enhance the chances of approval not only for the O-Bahn extension but for future projects within the scope of the DPA’s wide definition of 'infrastructure'.
The PLZ DPA uses comforting language which tends to disguise the significant lowering of the bar for approval of private and public development in the Park Lands which it is intended to bring about: :
at the outset is an assertion by the Minister that the matter of the DPA is 'of significant social, economic and environmental importance'.
the word 'development' is avoided in favour of the more acceptable 'infrastructure', 'project' etc.
In regard to the O-Bahn City Access Project, despite no formal cost/benefit analysis being available, the project is described as 'a critical investment in improving our public transport and road infrastructure and will result in significant improvements in travel times, service reliability to commuters, road traffic improvements and improved use of the Park Lands.
The State Government's 30-Year Plan for Greater Adelaide and the draft Integrated Transport and Land Use Plan are invoked, bolstering the credentials of the O-Bahn proposal.
However, saying that the proposal is worthwhile doesn't make it so, and I suggest that each of the claims made for it in the available documentation can reasonably be disputed, especially in relation to its $160 million projected cost. That none of the claimed advantages of the proposal is quantified in the DPA document suggests to me that the advantages may be slight. There is no mention of any disadvantages of the project, although clearly they exist.
I submit that stripped of its political element - the desire of a government to be involved in grand, highly visible works, and putting aside the enthusiasm of the 'owners' of the development in government and its departments and whatever influence expectant contractors may have in relation to it, this proposal is at worst a solution for which there is no problem, and at best, fine tuning using funds which could be better employed elsewhere.
Individual submissions to the consultation are invited, and I urge anyone interested to make the effort on behalf of our unique Park Lands. There is a public meeting on July 28th at which submitters may be heard.
Tim Simpson BArch BArchSt
A 4-page explanation of the DPA is available here:
WRITE TO THE DEVELOPMENT POLICY ADVISORY COMMITTEE (DPAC)
Dear Sirs /Madam
I, the undersigned, hereby make a submission regarding the Park Lands Zone DPA and I wish to be heard at the public meeting on 28 July.
The Minister for Planning has proposed a Development Plan Amendment (DPA) that will facilitate infrastructure such as the O-Bahn City Access Project being constructed in sections of Adelaide Park Lands. The proposal is to make infrastructure ‘merit’ category in those sections of Park Lands. Currently public infrastructure is assessed as non-complying development.
What is public infrastructure? As well as the O-Bahn, it includes items such as railways and a proposed railway overpass in the west Park Lands, pedestrian overpasses, tunnels, electricity sub-stations, sewage treatment works, bus depots, and possibly public schools; it’s a very wide ambit.
What is most disturbing is that making such projects ‘merit’ development means that the detailed decisions about, for example, the location and length of the proposed tunnel, the noise impact of the buses on adjoining recreation areas, location of cycle and pedestrian crossings if any, removal of significant trees, all these decisions can be enforced by the Department without any formal public input or publication of proper review documents such as an Environmental Impact Statement that highlight the impact of the project.
The proposed O-Bahn City Access Project involves an extension of the O-Bahn busway to Adelaide’s central business district with a ‘tunnel’ and other structures affecting the east Park Lands. However, according to documents released by the Department of Planning, Transport and Infrastructure, that ‘tunnel’ is in reality an excavated cutting, not a tunnel at all, so it will clearly have an adverse impact on the Park Lands. Additionally, the cutting does not extend all the way to East Terrace, so there will be an “expressway” through most of Rymill Park.
For these reasons, I wish to indicate that the DPAC should advise the Minister of Planning, Transport and Infrastructure to reject the amendments as proposed.
Yours Faithfully,
CONTAMINATED AND FLOOD-PRONE PARK LANDS HIGH SCHOOL?
The State Government is planning to use the old Reid building in Frome Park, part of Tainmuntilla (Park 11) on Frome Rd, to host a new High School.
Apart from the fact that the land should be returned to Park Lands, APPA has identified several other reasons why this is a shocking decision:
The Reid building adjoins contaminated ground; contamination is buried in the former UniSA carpark area and would be very expensive to remove as there isn’t a suitable disposal site in SA for the type of contamination. (Council spent millions to bury the contamination, hence the ‘mounding’ over the area). So very limited possibility of providing additional drop off and parking as required for a high school.
Very expensive acquisition, $30 m, then they have to renovate, another $30 m? Surely other private land is available at a fraction of the cost?
The building has an elevated ground floor because the whole site is flood prone, it floods into the basement occasionally. It did so a few years ago and drowned all the experimental rats in the basement! Not ideal for a High School I would have thought, drowning a students.
A high school in a high rise building is very difficult to manage (e.g. lift capacity has to be very high to move classes around). Even in very crowded cities, authorities try to avoid that.
The building is a complete lemon, and point 3 above alone should preclude its use as a school.
FESTIVAL PLAZA DESIGNS - WINNERS!
Check out the alternative designs for the Festival Plaza that DON'T require giving Park Lands and millions of dollars to a Sydney billionaire.
Now all that we have to do is to get the Government to cost this project and compare it to the $180 million that they propose giving to the Walker Corporation to make a commercial takeover of the Festival Plaza.
MORE BIKE TRAILS THROUGH THE PARK LANDS?
The Adelaide City Council has extended until 17 July, its invitation to make submissions on future strategies for the Park Lands.
Some bicycle advocates are expected to propose more and better bike trails through the Park Lands. What do you think?
The State Government is once again threatening to build a massive new grandstand on Victoria Park.
It's the "industry" of horse racing which is making a renewed push to re-occupy a block of Park Lands. If the industry and the Government get their way, there will be bricks and mortar, concrete and bitumen laid over one of our Parks for generations, in short-term pursuit of the holy dollar.
APPA and the City Council are both pushing back. Here's how Channel Seven covered the story on 16 June: http://yhoo.it/1zZ3EPV
PHOTOS OF THE DAY
Recent highlights
From the top:
a) Palmer Gardens / Pangki Pangki (Park 28)
b) Wikaparntu Wirra (Park 22) off Anzac Highway
c) Kurangga (Park 20) off Unley Rd - Saturday junior soccer d) Pardipardinyilla (Park 2) near Adelaide Aquatic Centre e) Wita Wirra (Park 18) off South Tce near Hutt Rd
