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Legislative
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| Mike Elliott Leader Australian Democrats Member of the Legislative Council |
Parliament Index |
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Legislative
Council |
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| Mike Elliott Leader Australian Democrats Member of the Legislative Council |
Parliament Index |
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URBAN SPRAWL
The Hon. M.J. ELLIOTT: I note that the Minister for Transport and Urban Planning has only just returned from Portland. I have not had a chance to have a real discussion about that but I am sure she found it a very interesting experience. Portland is a city that reminds me of Adelaide-not physically but the feel of the place, the people and the sort of community that it is. One thing that Portland has done is to hard zone the city. A line has been drawn and they have said, `That is it; the city is not going beyond that line.' Portland has set about trying to contain the sprawl.
That is something about which we in Adelaide have talked for some years but we have not finally done anything. The big question becomes: if you stop urban sprawl, where then does the population go and how much planning do we deliberately do to set about increasing density within the existing metropolitan area? We have seen quite a boom in very recent times within the City of Adelaide-something which is long overdue and which, I hope, continues. I must say that if I did not have children I would find the idea of living right in the city quite an attractive proposition, but that is just an aside. But what about beyond Adelaide itself?
I know that some councils have been criticised for not permitting the splitting of blocks to allow increased density, but I wonder whether that is really the way to go. Should we go from full to half urban blocks or should we take another view and really plan increased density, not just letting it happen? In my view we should be endeavouring to create nodes of high density living through the city. From my own personal experience I can talk about areas of the city that I know better. For example, I would consider putting nodes of very high density living within the city in the vicinity of the Blackwood and Mitcham railway stations and potentially in the vicinity of the Goodwood railway station. I would encourage those sites because they are very close to shopping centres which are capable of further upgrading and which would respond. But it seems to me that we should set about creating places where people can live and have easy access to transport. For instance, not only does the Blackwood railway precinct offer people a line that runs directly to the city but also four major bus routes convene there, one of them going to the Marion shopping centre. And the Mitcham railway station has bus routes adjacent to it. I would be looking for nodes of quite dense housing.
I do not think we should be encouraging just the simple splitting of urban blocks as has been happening in much of Adelaide, because that sort of unplanned planning leaves us with considerable problems. For example, everyone still relies upon the motor car because they are too far from work and there is no easy way of getting there. They are also too far from the shops and so on. I believe that we should use zoning to encourage these changes. In particular, around these railway station nodes I would zone for quite dense urban development but I would do it in a very planned way. I would even seek, for instance, to bring in the housing trust to help redevelop some of these zones.
We will need to find money to pay for some of the things that need to be done. For instance, roads in the Blackwood area near the present roundabout need to be upgraded. Where will the money come from? If we rezone, we should also capture the increased value of the land. We should not simply let it all accumulate to the people who own the land for a simple capital gain because they happen to be the owners of the land. We should be capturing at least some of the increased value. That can help to pay to make these precincts even more workable as transport hubs and perhaps also to ensure that there are pocket parks and other amenities that will make these areas more attractive. We should be seeking to ensure that they have a range of facilities that will make them attractive places in which to live. In this way, by real planning, I believe we can achieve an outcome that can finally take pressure off the urban fringes-something that is clearly long overdue in Adelaide.
The PRESIDENT: Order! The time set aside for Matters of Interest has expired. I call on the business of the day.
