Parliamentary Committees

PUBLIC WORKS COMMITTEE: PLAYFORD ALIVE—MUNNO PARA AND ANDREWS FARM PRECINCTS

Ms CICCARELLO (Norwood) (11:02): I move:

That the 328^th report of the committee, entitled Playford Alive—Munno Para and Andrews Farm Precincts, be noted.

The Playford North Urban Renewal Project (now called Playford Alive) involves the redevelopment of the Peachey Belt suburbs of Smithfield Plains and Davoren Park, along with the greenfield land at Munno Para, Munno Para West, Munno Para Downs, Andrews Farm and Penfield.

The current stages include appropriate proximately 118 hectares of land located north of Curtis Road at Munno Para, Munno Para West and Munno Para Downs and 13.5 hectares at Andrews Farm South, together with the expenditure on associated supporting infrastructure. The Andrews Farm scope of works comprises:

a four hectare primary school site;

a commercial/retail site;

two medium density sites;

a lilac pipe reticulation network;

stormwater and landscape enhancement works in Smith Creek;

a culvert upgrade on Smith Creek crossing at Petherton Road;

upgrading a portion of Petherton Road; and

downstream stormwater works to provide flood protection.

The Munno Para stages 2 to 15b scope of works comprises:

1,138 lots, including approximately 50 super lots within the proposed Curtis Road town centre and mixed use zone;

several innovative and affordable group housing sites;

major internal connecting boulevards;

the partial upgrade of Curtis Road;

senior living sites;

a major town park and several neighbourhood and local parks;

safe and attractive bicycle and pedestrian networks;

major stormwater works;

a third lilac pipe reticulation network;

partial closure, diversion and upgrade of Coventry Road;

upgrade and reconstruction of Stebonheath Road;

a road network to accommodate public transport routes;

an R-12 private school site; and

landscape and road upgrades to the northern portions of Peachey Road and Coventry Road and at the southern gateway to the project on Peachey Road.

The location of the two new schools within the project area (B-7 in Smithfield Plains and B-2 in Munno Para West) has required modifications to the road network to ensure appropriate access via public and private transport.

The modelling assumes joint funding by the LMC and the City of Playford (including federal government funding) for the upgrading of Curtis Road, which has a projected traffic volume of 20,000-plus vehicles per day. However, the current stage of the project includes only the first stage of the upgrading and does not include the funding of a grade separated rail crossing on Curtis Road.

Government agencies, the City of Playford and community leaders have been working together with the LMC project team to finalise the plan. Consultation has occurred with respect to community facilities and services, the development of the proposed new school facilities and proposed traffic management upgrades in the draft structure plan. Residents have been very supportive of the proposed safety and security improvements and for more general practitioners and community health services to better serve the community.

The committee is told that, in the overall plan, a key outcome relates to coordinated delivery of all stormwater management. A number of catchments flow from the Hills through the development, all ending up at Smith Creek near the Northern Expressway. LMC is working with the council to model the whole network to ensure that there are holding points for detention basins to control water flows. LMC is also working with the council to integrate the public parks, wetlands and aquifer recharge systems into the urban form, together with a recycled water scheme proposal to bring treated wastewater from Bolivar to mix with council stormwater. The water will be reticulated back through a pipe system to all reserves and parks as well as individual homes for irrigation and toilet flushing.

The overall project is intended to provide improved education facilities, high needs housing, affordable housing, more integrated human services delivery, integrated stormwater detention systems and sustainability initiatives.

One of the overall objectives of the Playford Alive project is to reduce the concentration of the Department for Families and Communities from 30 per cent in the Peachey Belt to 10 per cent by spreading some of this housing into the new greenfield area. The level of high needs housing provided by DFC will double the State Housing Plan target and a discount of 12½ per cent will be provided for those purchases. Some 20 per cent of dwellings will be affordable housing which, again, is double the State Housing Plan target. The retail lots will be marketed and sold through Century 21, which was appointed as a result of an open tender.

The project includes an expenditure allowance of an average of $7,250 per lot (including stage 1 lots) for a marketing advantage benefit pack as part of a unique marketing proposition. The advantage pack will include the $500 rebate for solar/gas boosted hot water systems, front fencing (which is mandated as part of the new urbanism principles and is an essential element of integration with the renewal area), side and rear boundary fencing and a landscaping rebate/voucher system.

The advantage pack is also a key tool to ensure early establishment of properties that will build in overall quality and value in the project. As the advantage pack will be operated on a cost recovery basis with a value for each individual lot being added to the market price, it has not been modelled in the cash flow but has been included in the total capital expenditure approval.

Gross revenue is expected to be in the order of $249.3 million. Net revenue after GST, discounts for affordable housing, the community fund, selling costs and commission is expected to be $217.3 million. The project surplus is anticipated to be in the order of $81.5 million.

Based upon the evidence it has considered, pursuant to section 12C of the Parliamentary Committees Act 1991, the Public Works Committee reports to parliament that it recommends the proposed public work.

Mr PISONI (Unley) (11:08): This was certainly a very worthwhile project. I think I should point out that the quarterly report that came out close to three months ago stated that, in terms of return to government, the project was 50 per cent over budget. I think that is an interesting figure. I point out to the parliament that, at a time when we have the Treasurer warning us about cuts in revenue, in the area of housing developments being undertaken by the government we have seen a 50 per cent increase over and above what the government expected to earn in profit from this program.

I think that there are two points to be made here. The first is that we are seeing that this government certainly has trouble controlling its spending, and its budget difficulties obviously relate to the problem it is having in containing its spending. We have seen examples of that throughout the year.

Another point I would like to make is that perhaps the biggest beneficiary of the first home owners grant is the state government through its land releases. There is no doubt we have seen an increase in the price of a certain level of property in the marketplace—that price bracket aimed at first home buyers. We have not seen an increase in supply but we have certainly seen an increase in demand. I think that anyone who understands the supply and demand process knows that that will lead to a price increase.

The quarterly report certainly showed a substantial increase in the price of those properties. They are being sold on the open market, and there is no discount to make the housing affordable, even at market value. The LMC told us these packages fall into the affordable housing bracket, so it is effectively exempt from the 15 per cent affordable housing requirement because the whole development is described as being affordable. I think the quarterly report gave us some information that expanded on the information we were given at the briefing.

It is important to ensure that a good effort is put into greening the suburb. We know that trees make an enormous difference to temperature in suburbs and we have been experiencing some very hot summers in South Australia in recent years. There is no doubt that those suburbs that are described as the green, leafy suburbs are substantially cooler on hot days than those suburbs that do not have trees. Adelaide has a lot of suburbs with street trees and it makes a big difference to how the suburb feels and, of course, for flora and fauna. We are seeing smaller block sizes and the selling off of public land for housing developments that otherwise provided open space and room for urban forests.

Because of the tram development, I think about 100 established trees in the Parklands on Port Road were knocked over; and the poor management of the tram overpass caused residents in the seat of Ashford to lose 80 year old trees to put in a temporary track on their footpaths, when the whole process could have been dealt with by a closure of the track in 2005 for a six month period. The Anzac Highway underpass, of course, was very well into the planning stage at that point. However, it did not occur to the minister, or anyone in government, that they would need to deal with the South Road tram crossing at the same time and, consequently, we have seen the loss of significant trees there.

At Glenside we are seeing the sell-off of open space and the destruction of another 100-odd significant trees—the government is not able to tell us which ones will fall victim to the chainsaw—and this, again, has a big effect on the urban forests and on fauna in particular. Many native birds, introduced birds and even possums and other animals that we see in our suburbs have been forced out of nearby bushlands, particularly in the hot weather when we had a long period of drought, and have come into our leafy suburbs for food and shelter.

Last night I attended a meeting of Friends of the City of Unley Society, which is a group of people that monitors demolitions and the destruction of heritage buildings and the carving up of blocks within the City of Unley. Chris Daniels, from the University of South Australia, spoke about the importance of urban vegetation and how important the backyard is. He made a very interesting point about how Adelaide has developed to an inside out city; that is, we have the Parklands, then we have our inner suburbs which have relatively large blocks and lots of trees, and then, as we move out into newer developments, we are seeing smaller and smaller blocks, houses built from boundary to boundary, eaves almost hitting each other and no room for trees or greenery, with hard spaces everywhere. I think we found with the recent flooding that, the more we have in the way of hard spaces in our suburbs, the more run-off we get and the more water management and, in particular, stormwater management we need to put in place. It is certainly something that we need to address.

Dr Daniels went on to explain how important it was that we preserve our inner suburbs and the open space we have in our inner suburbs so that we do not lose any more of the ecology that we have in Adelaide. In newer suburbs such as Andrews Farm and Munno Para, we are seeing much smaller blocks of land, much smaller personal open space, and therefore it is important that we retain the personal open space that we have in our more established suburbs. Of course, in our newer suburbs, it is very important to ensure that we have street trees and parks with trees, and also lower-height foliage for bugs and insects. They are an important part of the ecology as well, and obviously they need protection from birds or other predators and areas in which to live and survive. It is all part of the ecology. It is all part of what makes living in Adelaide such a wonderful thing.

I enjoyed this presentation. I was pleased to see this activity happening in the northern suburbs, which is my old stamping ground. It was not all that long ago—35-odd years ago, I suppose—when I lived not far from the Parabanks Shopping Centre, when there was enough open space that you could hop onto a dirt bike and ride over homemade ramps and jumps just a few metres from where I lived. Of course, the area in behind the Central Districts Hospital is now filled with housing development. It is good to see that sort of development, but I do note the 50 per cent increase in the profit that the government has made from this project over and above what it expected.

Motion carried.