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Legislative Council - Fifty-First Parliament, Third Session (51-3)
2009-02-05 Daily Xml
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CHELTENHAM PARK

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER (14:31): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for Urban Development and Planning a question about the proposed Cheltenham Park redevelopment.

Leave granted.

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: The South Australian Jockey Club announced its intention to cease racing at the Cheltenham Park racecourse and consolidate its annual program at Morphettville. As part of its future planning, the SAJC requested that Cheltenham Park be rezoned to incorporate a new residential development. Will the minister provide an update to the chamber on what the government is doing to ensure that any redevelopment within this large open space returns positive benefits to the South Australian community?

The Hon. P. HOLLOWAY (Minister for Mineral Resources Development, Minister for Urban Development and Planning, Minister for Small Business) (14:32): I thank the Hon. Mr Hunter for his very timely question. In August last year, I approved the final rezoning for the Cheltenham Park racecourse through a ministerial plan amendment. This ministerial DPA provides maps and explicit rules that guide what can and cannot be done with the Cheltenham Park site, establishing detailed criteria against which development applications for the former racecourse are to be assessed. Importantly, the rezoning ensures that 35 per cent of the former racecourse is retained as open space with any residential and commercial development. I point out that this percentage is more than double the standard requirement of 12.5 per cent for new housing developments.

The rezoning setaside 11 hectares of open space in no more than two parcels and a further 6.1 hectares for parks and landscaped areas. This government took the opportunity afforded by the rezoning to ensure that some of the open space land at Cheltenham Park is set aside for a wetland to assist in stormwater harvesting. The decision to incorporate a wetland within the racecourse redevelopment is consistent with this government's goal, set out in its 2005 Water Proofing Adelaide strategy, to increase annual stormwater re-use to 20,000 megalitres (or about 10 per cent of Adelaide's mains water use).

I am delighted to inform members that the Cheltenham Park racecourse redevelopment will include a greatly enhanced stormwater capture and re-use project. The $20 million project will include a 4.5 hectare wetland and aquifer storage and recovery scheme, with the capacity to treat, store, recover and re-use 1.2 gigalitres of stormwater a year. This will allow new homes at the site nearby industrial users to be connected to dual reticulation systems to use harvested stormwater for non-potable purposes, such as garden watering and toilet flushing, which is similar to that which exists at Mawson Lakes.

The aquifer storage and recovery scheme will have the capacity to process water from the Cheltenham Park redevelopment and the Torrens Road catchment, as well as parts of the Hindmarsh catchment and Torrens River. I point out that this is an area of almost 900 hectares. Despite the campaign of misinformation conducted by some regular letter writers to The Advertiser, the government has always been wholeheartedly committed to creating a wetland at Cheltenham Park.

I am delighted to inform members that the wetland project, which was announced today by my colleagues the Minister for Water Security (Karlene Maywald) and minister Weatherill, is six times larger than the capacity originally envisaged in the development plan amendment, so it is 1.2 gigalitres, rather than what had originally been envisaged. The area of the catchment is almost 900 hectares, much larger than the original catchment of just the Cheltenham site.

The project that was announced today by the government ensures that we will well and truly exceed this government's target to increase annual stormwater re-use. The development plan is about not only ensuring adequate stormwater retention but also providing the South Australian community with access to open space within the western suburbs, and that is why the rezoning also incorporates linked walking and cycling trails, integrated environmental sustainability principles such as passive solar design housing and a minimum of 15 per cent of the housing meeting the government's affordable housing requirements.

This government wants Cheltenham Park to emerge as a vibrant inner metropolitan suburb. The rezoning also includes scope to ensure that the residential development at Cheltenham Park is consistent with the government's plan to electrify the Grange and Outer Harbor lines and extend light rail to West Lakes and Semaphore.

This government has set out a modern vision for Adelaide through the $2 billion transport revolution and its commitment to the environment with its object of increased storage and re-use of stormwater. This rezoning is allowing the government to deliver on its vision of creating commuter-friendly inner city communities alongside a modern, electrified rail network within an environmentally sustainable city.

I want to stress that it was the SAJC's decision to cease horse racing at Cheltenham Park. This government's role was simply to ensure that this decision delivered tangible benefits to the community. The announcement today of an enlarged capacity for stormwater harvesting at the racecourse site is consistent with that objective. Rather than just rubber-stamping a residential development, this government is making sure that we grasp the opportunity to integrate an environmentally based wetlands capable of recycling 1.2 gigalitres of stormwater and set aside an abundance of open space accessible to the public. While many South Australians are disappointed that horse racing will no longer be a feature of Cheltenham Park, we can guarantee that the legacy it provides is one that ultimately enhances the local community socially, economically and environmentally.

Finally, the commitment to expand the scope of the stormwater project coincides with today's lifting of an open space proclamation for the Cheltenham Park Racecourse site, allowing residential development and stormwater harvesting to proceed.

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