The project that introduced the first 40km/h zone along an arterial road in Adelaide has won a national planning award.

The “Village Heart” project in Prospect, which widened footpaths and slowed, narrowed and heavily reduced car parking on Prospect Road, took out the ‘From Plan to Place’ award last night at the Planning Institute Australia Awards for Planning Excellence.

A team led by Jensen Planning + Design and including Tonkin Consulting, Brecknock Consulting and the City of Prospect developed the project, which is credited with improving the community atmosphere and business turnover of the “Village Heart” shopping precinct following its completion in 2012.

Since then, several councils have shown interest in reducing the speed of major roads in their areas, and the Prospect Road site has hosted major events such as the Tour Down Under.

It has also previously won several other planning awards, including the Planning Minister’s Award last year.

“We were commissioned to do a detailed design to improve the road and make it a better place for people, for the community, rather than as a traffic thoroughfare,” Jensen Planning + Design director Peter Jensen told InDaily.

“It really was transforming it from an arterial road to an attractive community village centre.

“The footpaths were really narrow and there was parking on both sides of the street. It wasn’t good for cyclists and it wasn’t easy to cross the road.

“The experience around the world is that cars don’t purchase goods, it’s people who purchase goods. If you make a place really attractive for people, then they’ll trade better than those places that have lots of car parking out the front but no room for people.”

According to Jensen, some businesses in the area were initially skeptical about the idea of reducing the speed limit from 50km/h to 40km/h and the loss of car parks on both sides of the street.

However, he said, improved customer patronage in the area had since melted away that resistance.

“There was some concern by traders, but overall the traders were supportive in the end.

“It was the first 40km/h zone through an arterial road in Adelaide. It sort of broke a lot of rules.

“That’s been now copied in main streets (and) there are a number of other councils that want to introduce it now.”

Prospect Mayor David O’Loughlin told InDaily the project was “a design leader in so many ways”.

“Our community used to shun Prospect Road and now they flock to it like moths to a flame.”