Park Lands Community Buildings

Project Information

The objective of the Draft Park Lands Community Buildings (Sport and Recreation) Policy is to guide the replacement of existing community sports infrastructure on the Adelaide Park Lands, with a particular focus on City of Adelaide owned community sports buildings that are (or proposed to be) leased to external community organisations.

The Draft Policy is underpinned by five guiding principles and related performance criteria, derived from a series of Council and Kadaltilla / Adelaide Park Lands Authority workshops and reports between May and August 2023. Feedback was sought on the Draft Policy to inform its final composition before it is presented to Council in March 2024 for adoption.

Consultation Update

The primary themes of the feedback we received during consultation were:

Theme	Context
Fit for Purpose Buildings	There was strong support to replace existing sports buildings in the Park Lands with new community sports buildings that were fit for purpose in relation to the facilities and users they intended to serve.
Quality Design	There was strong support for new community sports buildings to be inclusive, safe, environmentally sustainable and accessible.
Shared Facilities	There was strong support for creating shared facilities that serviced multiple sporting groups and non-sporting community use.
Co-funding Essential	There was strong support for co-funding of community sports buildings, with multiple references to quality design buildings being beyond the financial capacity of community organisations.
Greater Flexibility	Multiple respondents did not agree with the policy regarding: no additional car parking, with suggestions that car parking be provided on permeable surfaces no loss of trees, with suggestions that any loss of trees be replaced with new plantings to achieve an overall net increase no net loss of Park Lands was deemed unrealistic in the context of replacing existing building footprint with fit for purpose shared facilities, with suggestions for multi-level buildings and an overall reduction in the number of Park Lands buildings.
Competing Objectives	Multiple respondents indicated that the policy objectives of creating fit for purpose shared facilities, no net loss of Park Lands and low scale single level buildings to optimise accessibility, were conflicting.

The secondary themes of the feedback received were:

Theme	Context
Spectator Facilities	Some respondents questioned the practicality of temporary spectator facilities, citing a critical link between spectators and recruiting volunteers and new participants.
Elite Competition	Some respondents sought clarification of what was meant by ‘elite’ competition and disagreed with it should be excluded.

A summary of feedback received during consultation can be found here.

In February and March 2024, we shared these consultation findings with Kadaltilla / Adelaide Park Lands Authority (Kadaltilla) and Council. Minutes of the February meeting of Kadaltilla / Adelaide Park Lands Authority can be found here, and the March meeting can be found here.

In March and April 2024, we workshopped these findings with Kadaltilla and Council.

Incorporating community consultation and workshop feedback, the Draft Policy has substantially changed, and we intend to re-consult on a revised Draft Policy.