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Renewal SA boss flags Torrens waterfront living

Aug 31, 2015
Renewal SA boss John Hanlon on the banks of the Torrens.

Renewal SA boss John Hanlon on the banks of the Torrens.

Waterfront living along the Torrens is inevitable if the city of Adelaide is to be revived, according to the head of the State Government’s urban development agency.

Renewal SA chief executive John Hanlon has put riverfront residential development dramatically on the agenda, not only for the soon-to-be-vacant old Royal Adelaide Hospital site but also “west of Morphett St Bridge”, an area currently reserved for parklands.

“Absolutely, we want people living on the Riverbank,” he told a Property Council forum last week.

“We’ve got to move beyond having a discussion.”

Hanlon said while the Government wanted to inject new life into the city through a huge influx of residents, “there’s no way we’re going to get 50,000 people within five to 10 years … on planning reform, unless we do something significant”.

“We have to free up C and D grade (office) buildings for residential development,” he said.

Riverbank Authority chairman Andrew McEvoy, who was also on the panel, said the emerging biomedical precinct on the old railyard site west of Adelaide would help inject new life into the area, and “people who work there no doubt want to live close by”.

“I just don’t know why it’s such a sacred cow to discuss,” he said.

SA Property Council executive director Daniel Gannon, who chaired the forum, told InDaily such a change would necessitate a shift in the state’s “residential culture”.

“South Australians have historically lived both horizontally and on a freehold basis,” he said.

“What we’re now being asked to consider is living vertically and on a leasehold basis.”

He said the UK model of 125-year residential leases on crown land was an international benchmark that could be emulated.

“We know that leasehold arrangements currently work very well with student accommodation and retirement living, and these could be very attractive options for the existing RAH site and the area west of Morphett Street,” Gannon said.

Expressions of interest for development proposals on the current RAH site close tomorrow, with Hanlon adamant the site would feature a residential component.

“There’ll be people living on the RAH site … it’s going to happen,” he said.

But he said any proposal also had to put Adelaide “on the map”, as was the case along for “the entire riverbank precinct”.

“We’ve invested $4 billon in there, we want to see some return … we want to free it up for good investment, proper investment,” he said.

The sun sinking into the west over the River Torrens. Photo: Nat Rogers/InDaily

Renewal SA has flagged residential development west of Morphett St. Photo: Nat Rogers/InDaily

Planning Minister John Rau told InDaily in a statement: “I did not hear what Mr Hanlon had to say but I assume he was canvassing theoretical options for that area.”

“No decision has been made one way or the other about exactly what mix of activity would be appropriate on land to the west of the Morphett Street Bridge,” said Rau.

“What uses are appropriate for that area will become clear after appropriate master planning and consideration of adjacent land uses.”

In a candid discussion on city vibrancy, Hanlon was equally forthright about the Government’s liquor licensing deregulation program that has seen the advent of around 50 “small bar” licences in the city. He said it was not the public service, but business, that had previously prevented an influx of new traders, but that “everyone involved in that mentality has changed” and the market would decide who was left to prosper.

“We can create 50 new businesses in Adelaide just by changing that (mentality),” he said.

“We might get one or two hotels struggling (but) the market’s going to sort it out.

“It will also sort it out on small bars, whether 50 works, or 30 … it will sort it out.”

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