[COM] Victoria Park Redevelopment

[AtD]

^^ just their circulation numbers.

[Wayno]

Driving past VP on Fullarton Rd this afternoon - the lawn for the sports oval (in front of the old grandstand) is now in place. Looks very lush. Must have been laid in the last few weeks - The Jan 3 nearmap image shows excavation in progress.

Also, the old grandstand also has scaffolding in place (at least at the southern end) - presumably for restoration purposes.

[Vee]

InDaily reports on a possible return to racing at Victoria Park?
This could involve a "boutique racing" venture (possibly geared to the well attended twilight meetings which attract lots of city workers) on a J-shaped track which does not interfere with the Clipsal.
http://www.indaily.com.au/#folio=001

The failed attempt to get a permanent structure in the Park Lands to service the motor and racing industries now means that half the year is now spent on erecting and dismantling temporary structures at Victoria Park. What a waste of time and money as well as an unsightly mess for such a long period.

InDaily suggests that the "likely timeframe (of a return to racing) revolved around the depreciation and decay of the temporary structures that have been used since December 2008 as an alternative to the permanent facility."

[rhino]

How far does a track have to continue beyond the end of a race, to allow horses to slow down?

How long will this J track be?

If they looped the short end of the J into the straight to allow for longer races, would the resultant turn be too tight?

Aiden, I expect you to adress each of these points individually, with individual quotes for each query.

[crawf]

Sounds promising. Hopefully horse racing does return to Victoria Park, because I believe with a new racing track with modern corporate and spectator facilities, Victoria Park has un-tap potential of becoming a unique tourist drawcard for visitors and locals into the city centre - just like Adelaide Oval, but on a smaller scale.

Hutt Street businesses could do packages for discounted lunches/dinners for before/after race meets. It would truly be an unique Adelaide thing, that no other Australian city could carbon copy.

P.S the saga should of never happened in the first place

[rhino]

P.S the saga should of never happened in the first place

Please .... should have never happened

[Wayno]

P.S the saga should of never happened in the first place

Please .... should have never happened

cue monotonehell

[crawf]

[Aidan]

How far does a track have to continue beyond the end of a race, to allow horses to slow down?

How long will this J track be?

If they looped the short end of the J into the straight to allow for longer races, would the resultant turn be too tight?

Aiden, I expect you to adress each of these points individually, with individual quotes for each query.

Sorry, Rhino, I don't know how much room it takes for horses to slow down. But it's about 1.4km long, and the similarity with the permanent grandstand plans suggests the turn would not be too tight.

If this goes ahead, is there any good reason why that permanent grandstand couldn't subsequently be built?

Edit: I forgot the permanent grandstand plan also involved moving that part of the motor racing track. So the curve probably would be too tight to loop, because otherwise there wouldn't be a good reason to go to the expense of moving it.

[Will]

From the City Messenger:

Horses' return? Neigh say parklands supporters

Council10 Mar 11 @ 12:00pm by Jessica Whiting


PARKLANDS supporters have shut down any moves to return horse racing to Victoria Park, despite the local business assocation’s support.

Almost three years since the South Australian Jockey Club left the city, it last week said it would be keen to bring back smaller, “boutique-style” race meets in the parklands if given the opportunity by the City Council.

South East City Residents Association chair John Underwood said his group would oppose the SAJC’s return if it involved new infrastructure.

“I can’t see how they can do it without putting some new infrastructure up so I’m unsure that residents would agree,” Mr Underwood said.

Adelaide Parklands Preservation Association president Kelly Henderson said the group also opposed the move and that SAJC’s return to Victoria Park would be “one step towards a permanent function centre”.

However, Hutt St Precinct Association president Gary Locke said many people he had spoken with believed the permanent grandstand for horse racing and motorsports proposed for the park about five years ago should have gone ahead.

“It would bring more people to the area,” Mr Locke said.

“People could catch the bus to Hutt St, have breakfast and then go to the races.”

Adelaide Lord Mayor Stephen Yarwood said a return of racing to Victoria Park was not on the City Council’s agenda - but he was happy to have discussions with the SAJC.

“We have a clearly stated masterplan that does not include horse racing and we are in the process of rolling out high-class sporting at that precinct,” Mr Yarwood said.

SAJC chief executive Brenton Wilkinson told the City Messenger there were no plans to return to Victoria Park but he would not say no to the opportunity if it arose.

“The SAJC would be happy to sit around a table with any parties if any proposal was suggested for Victoria Park, to work out any infrastructure that would be necessary,” Mr Wilkinson said.

“But the SAJC’s footprint could be minimal as it would be more of a boutique-style meet spot - the parklands doesn’t need extra buildings in it.”

The SAJC left Victoria Park in April 2008, after joint plans with the SA Motor Sport Board for a shared grandstand fell through and it decided existing buildings were no longer fit to host race meets.

Mr Wilkinson said any return to racing would bring life to the city, with 1400-strong crowds attending standard race meets and up to 10,000 people at Christmas twilight events.

Racing Minister Tom Kenyon said in a written statement that any move to return racing to Victoria Park was a matter between the SAJC and the Adelaide City Council.

Mr Wilkinson said the SAJC had an introductory meeting with Mr Kenyon this week but would not put any return on the agenda.

Do you support the return of horse racing at Victoria Park? Have your say by filling in the feedback box on this page.

[Wayno]

Put sneakers on the horses and have them run the clipsal circuit

horse-shoe.jpg (33.54 KiB) Viewed 5174 times

[Wayno]

we have a new square pitch in Vic Park, complete with grandstand!

[Wayno]

Stage 3 of the Victoria Park revival starts this week, and the butterfly is safe!

from the Independent Weekly:

THE Chequered Copper butterfly can rest assured, its habitat will be protected under the next stage of the Victoria Park Master Plan, which starts work this week.

As first reported last month in Indaily, the first sighting since the 1960s of the Chequered Copper brought to a halt the wetlands redevelopment of Victoria Park.

The butterfly was spotted among grasses by a Bush for Life volunteer who alerted the Adelaide City Council, which decided to put the works on hold until a report was done on the likely impact on the butterfly.

The council this week starts started Stage 3 of the Master Plan project, which will convert the grassed areas at the southern end of the Park into a number of multi-use sports fields.

Two hectares of remnant grassland will be protected; and the running track and playing fields have been designed to accommodate surrounding habitat, including that for the Chequered Copper.

Stages 2 and 3 saw the completion of the northern loop in late October 2009 and the premium field in March 2011.

“Council has endorsed nine new playing fields, which will transform Victoria Park into an active recreation area for the whole community,” Acting Lord Mayor David Plumridge said.

To complete the project, a large amount of civil and building construction work is required to re-level and treat the areas of low-level contamination.

Fencing will be put up this week around the perimeter of the site and there will be restricted access to footpaths and the southern grassed areas. Some pathways will be closed during the upgrade and signage will be in place to direct pedestrians and cyclists around the site.

The fields should be finished by December 2011 and ready for play by winter 2012.

Lord Mayor Stephen Yarwood is on a three week study tour of Europe hosted by the Urban Development Institute of Australia, taking a look at metropolitan projects in London, Manchester, Stockholm, Copenhagen and Amsterdam.

“While we don’t want Adelaide to be exactly like any other city, this will be a great opportunity to learn from their strengths and gain new ideas,” Yarwood said.

“The need to achieve sustainable inner city development is crucial and this will provide us with invaluable knowledge that can be used in future planning for the city.”

[stumpjumper]

Basing policy on the preservation in a location of a species without proper knowledge of its existence in other places isn't really defensible, imho.

As to the increased use of Vic Park, I'm all for it.

The grandstand idea had a few serious problems. Here's a quick retrospect, as I see it:

1. The 'grandstand' was to be built at public cost for private use, which lowered support. At a cost of $55 million the structure was to be used for 4 days of the Clipsal race and according to SAJC between 8 and 20 days of horse racing. SAJC ruled out any continuing use as a licenced function premises, perhaps doing so under pressure from various quarters as a result of rumours of proposals for a 'Lucky Horseshoe' style facility like those operated under CEO Steve Ploubidis at Morphettville and Cheltenham. This meant that even a bank rate return on the investment of $55 million would require an imputed rent of about $220,000 per day in use, which was obviously not on the cards. This made the $1 million pa cost of erecting and breaking down the temporary stands more palatable.

2. SAJC had not been a good custodian of the previous facilities it had leased from ACC. SAJC was responsible for maintaining the facilities and other than some new building work, eg some new stalls it had not kept up the maintenance of the assets. For much of its recent history SAJC had suffered from poor financial management and planning, dself-induced problems which created a lot of antipathy towards the racing club and weakened its bargaining position.

3. To some, the idea that the privately owned, highly profitable Clipsal race should attract such additional public subsidy - notwithstanding the benefit to the state - wasn't acceptable to some people. 60% of V8SA, the Clipsal race owner, has just been sold for $195 million.

4. The design of the facility was badly compromised by the need to provide the very different physical requirements of horse racing and car racing.

5. The idea of a large (250m x 15m, multi level), bland, permanent building closed about 350 days per year concerned many more than Park Lands Preservation members.

6. The fact that the government personality driving the project was Kevin Foley aroused opposition of itself, many perceiving Foley as erratic and untrustworthy. Foley subsequently changed his mind about the project:

"Treasurer Kevin Foley now says he was wrong to seek a permanent new grandstand. He says the Opposition bill would have trampled on the interests of people living near Victoria Park." http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008 ... 232598.htm

So from the above, it can be seen that while the grandstand project had supporters, it was also highly politicised in a way that much public infrastructure isn't, and had significant opposition from a number of directions, which doomed it.

[Nathan]

But surely it could be used for other activities besides just the race and horse racing. There's plenty of other events that use the infield track, such as pedal prix, that would benefit from having some permanent facilities. I agree though that a bland building would have been horrible. Give the large amount of open space around it, it would be extremely important that the architecture was top notch to satisfy all uses, and fit in properly with it's surroundings — something like the new Silverstone Wing facility (http://www.silverstone.co.uk/)