News & Discussion: Adelaide City Council

[Ben]

Respect points for Mr Harbison +1

Now to actually put this into action!

For example, ahem, bringing Spire back from the dead.

What exactly do you want the council to do about Spire? They have approved it already, now it's up to the monkeys running it , i mean developers to turn it into reality. It is completly out of concil's control.

[Will]

It is good to see that the Lord Mayor has seen the light. It would be great if more councillors shared his visionary ideals.

Progress is not the enemy, stagnation is!

[Professor]

As a CBD dweller, this is too little too late Harbo. Where was this insight when he was going for the Mayor position pver the past 5 years? He cannot be re-elected again according to the rules, so now he is pro-development. Sigh...

I am so glad that the planning / approval process is no longer ruled by the council - but the developers have also evaporated so it will be "slim pickings" for a while on the major construction front, more's the pity.

[AtD]

Ben has unearthed a proposal for another high rise car park to be built, stand alone with no additional development at 42-56 Franklin Street, undoubtedly aimed at the 9-5 office workers. This is going to attract yet more single occupant vehicles onto the streets during peak hour, adding to congestion, pollution and noise. It is the most inefficient way to commute to work and the ACC should use its powers to discourage it at all opportunities.

Does the ACC have any plans or policies regarding sustainable transport use in the CBD?

Back when Clr Yarwood was a fresh face on this forum, he asked us for suggestions to reduce the environmental impact of CBD parking. Building more car parks will simply add to all the impacts by allowing yet more workers to chose their cars over public transport.

Clr Plumridge posts on his website his views on CBD parking:

Key policy areas that the council should investigate include:

· Encourage greater use of public transport, especially to parklands events.

· Encourage car pooling by incentives in carparking fees.

· Use traffic management plans to reduce through traffic in the CBD

I can only hope these upstanding people are true to their word and do all they can to squash this proposal.

Please post your support.

[jk1237]

10000% agree AtD. This news makes me want to spew. Theres already a multi-storey carpark about to start for the new Wakefield Street development on the eastern side of the city, and now another one on the west. This really really shits me off

[jk1237]

can we all think of ideas that can make some bucks for empty property owners other than carparks. There must be something else that can add to our city, instead of making it worse. Bloody hell even a bowling green or something, a temp 2 level row of portable atco offices, anything!

[Prince George]

The Queen and I would like to lend our voices to your cause. Allowing freestanding parking lots to be built negates any advantages we may have gotten from the buildings that are limiting the amount of on-site parking they provide.

Parking is like a cancer to a city (in my vision of the world, where Vancouver is healthier than Dallas). Just recently I read a pithy quote from Ventura, CA, City Manager Rick Cole -- “It’s illegal for a car to be homeless but not for people ... As a result, we devote a huge amount of extraordinarily valuable real estate to asphalt and concrete and then we give it away.”(*) As a first step, I really want either the council or the state should be looking at the extraordinarily low price of parking. See also these notes about a report from the RAND corporation on Los Angeles

In our thread about Portland, I mentioned that in their downtown they have a couple of food cart plazas formed out of what were open air parking lots. Literally, all they were was a flat area with connections for power and readily available water (I'm not sure what the sewage requirements are). This would be an alternative temporary use of an open lot from a stalled development. Perhaps I could interest the council in my vision for a Cafe in a 40' container - take shipping containers and fit them out with a kitchen and serving counters as a transportable Cafe/diner.

(*) The source article for that quote also had this neat factoid:

Cities indeed pay dearly to create and maintain free or inexpensive parking and devote a tremendous amount of land to it. Parking experts say the cost of building above-ground parking can range from $15,000 to $30,000 per space. Subterranean spaces can cost $25,000 to $70,000 each.

[jk1237]

Aparently Perth's new BHP building has only been required to provide around 300 car spaces for a building that will support around 5000 workers. Why are we needing to build 8-10 level carparks for office buildings of around 15 storeys and under. If Adelaide ever gets a building the size and height of BHP, the ACC will prob require a whole city block to be demolished to make way for a big enough carpark. No wonder why developers are building student housing blocks everywhere, caus these are exempt from being forced to provide carparks. Is it any wonder why there are no cranes on our skyline for office development. Is it too much bother to build office development in Adelaide?

Please Adelaide City Council, change your minimum carpark ratios to max carpark ratios and lower the amount immediately. If not the state govt needs to overule. This policy is turning our once great city into a car infested hole

[Will]

Aparently Perth's new BHP building has only been required to provide around 300 car spaces for a building that will support around 5000 workers. Why are we needing to build 8-10 level carparks for office buildings of around 15 storeys and under. If Adelaide ever gets a building the size and height of BHP, the ACC will prob require a whole city block to be demolished to make way for a big enough carpark. No wonder why developers are building student housing blocks everywhere, caus these are exempt from being forced to provide carparks. Is it any wonder why there are no cranes on our skyline for office development. Is it too much bother to build office development in Adelaide?

Please Adelaide City Council, change your minimum carpark ratios to max carpark ratios and lower the amount immediately. If not the state govt needs to overule. This policy is turning our once great city into a car infested hole

Although I agree with your suggestion of a cap on the amount of carparks allowed in developments, your arguement is mis-informed.

The ACC does not require developers to build large multi-level carparks for new office developments. Indeed, if you reflect on the ofice towers built in the alst few years, you'll see that most do not have carparks attached.

Those projects such as Flinders Link which do include large carparks were built, not because the ACC demanded it but because the developers wanted it. Indeed, carparks are very attractive for develoeprs as they are cheap to build and offer large returns. Hence, carparks are not the reason why there are few cranes building office developments at the moment. The real reason is that the construction cycle is wholy dependent on market forces, and presently in the current circumstances the market is demanding student apartments not office towers.

[AtD]

Although residential developments have minimum car park ratios.

[Hooligan]

http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/stor ... 82,00.html

ADELAIDE City Council would be relegated to collecting rates and rubbish under a plan to hand control of the CBD to the State Government.

The Property Council of Australia SA division is pushing for a government-controlled economic development agency to take over planning and strategic decisions of the CBD by the middle of next year under a blueprint to be released this week.

Under the proposal the council would be largely sidelined from major economic decisions.

Instead it would be left with providing municipal services and managing residential development in North Adelaide.

Property Council SA executive director Nathan Paine said SA needed a new governance model to remove the "petty, small-minded" politics from "state significant" decisions.

"It must be recognised that the central city is of critical importance not only to CBD residents and workers but to the state as a whole," he said.

"It is far too important to leave to the political whims of councillors elected by a handful of voters from North Adelaide.

"We are suggesting State Government control at the end of the day. When push comes to shove the CBD is about every South Australian."

The proposal is a key recommendation of the Property Council's document Adelaide 2036 - Building on Light's Vision, which will be launched on Tuesday outlining a new vision for the CBD at SA's bicentenary.

Mr Paine has remained coy about other elements of the manifesto but said the Adelaide City EDA would be controlled by an independent, five-member, state-appointed board and based on similar models used in cities including New York and Singapore.

It would report to the Minister for Economic Development and would be responsible for economic development, planning policy, asset management, urban design and key infrastructure delivery for the inner city and the parklands, including major events.

Agency members would include a representative from the city council and people with business and property expertise, and it would be funded through a separate levy on city ratepayers.

Mr Paine believed the agency could be in place by July next year pending legislation to establish the new body.

Last year the State Government stripped the council of planning powers for all projects costing more than $10m.

Outgoing Adelaide City Council Lord Mayor Michael Harbison did not find the proposal "objectionable".

"'I think there is value in ensuring the consideration of wider metropolitan and state needs in the management and development of the inner city," he said.

But he believed the best model would be to establish three super councils across Adelaide's north, south and central regions.

http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/stor ... 82,00.html

[jk1237]

Those projects such as Flinders Link which do include large carparks were built

huh, at the back of the 2 new buildings on Flinders St (Flinders Link) there is a huge great multi-storey new car park attached to it. I will go in and get a photo if you like. The laneway would actually look OK if it wasnt for the big concrete/prison bar carpark that dominates it. That car park was built at similar stage.

Can you give me some examples of new office blocks (over 7-8 levels) over the past 5 years that are not within a few metres of a new carpark

My next ranting question is what is the point of having such stringent architectural guidelines for new buildings, ie the DAP refusing to give approval for some buildings based on their look, when we let our CBD be dominated by these disgusting concrete, wire mesh/bar carparks everywhere.

And also I thought our council is supposed to be all for sustainable development ie green buildings yet they allow the most unsustainable development possible for western cities by encouraging greater use of the vehicle by having such a huge supply of carparks

[crawf]

City Central?

[jk1237]

City Central?

might check that one, there's definitely an underground carpark at the back and atleast thats better than a multistorey.

Does anyone know if there are any others without large carparks. I wasn't being nasty, I was serious. That office block on corner of Pulteney/Pirie St (next to Aurora) doesnt appear to have one, will need to have a look

[Will]

Those projects such as Flinders Link which do include large carparks were built

huh, at the back of the 2 new buildings on Flinders St (Flinders Link) there is a huge great multi-storey new car park attached to it. I will go in and get a photo if you like. The laneway would actually look OK if it wasnt for the big concrete/prison bar carpark that dominates it. That car park was built at similar stage.

Can you give me some examples of new office blocks (over 7-8 levels) over the past 5 years that are not within a few metres of a new carpark

My next ranting question is what is the point of having such stringent architectural guidelines for new buildings, ie the DAP refusing to give approval for some buildings based on their look, when we let our CBD be dominated by these disgusting concrete, wire mesh/bar carparks everywhere.

And also I thought our council is supposed to be all for sustainable development ie green buildings yet they allow the most unsustainable development possible for western cities by encouraging greater use of the vehicle by having such a huge supply of carparks

I think you have changed the wording of your arguement. So now its close to a large new carpark?

In that case:

*the Advertiser building
*8 level building fronting Light Square
*Elder House extension
*151 Pirie Street
*City Central
*Aurora on Pirie
*SA Water building
*Commonwealth law Courts