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Planning, lemming style?
Could we save our space - and keep our map - by smarter planning?
On Monday night (8 February) the town council gave an ambivalent “thumbs up” to residential development at the AZRI site south of Heavitree Gap.
Only one alderman (Jane Clark) voted against approving the Territory Government proposal to develop the former site of the Arid Zone Research Institute, while Sandy Taylor abstained from the vote.
One had the feeling watching this discussion that people are afraid to say “No” to the AZRI development. Is there an element of moral blackmail here? One does not want to be pictured or remembered as the one who stymied the ‘natural growth’ of the town, or forced a single mother to live in a silver bullet somewhere. But does that mean the ‘caring’ resident has to say yes to every development proposal that jumps out of the box?
Erwin Chlanda’s front page story in the Alice Springs news paraded the warning that Alice Springs might become a “welfare town” if AZRI were not approved. But it’s a long way from being that simple. And more than a few intelligent bystanders are beginning to wonder why the public debate has been framed as Undoolya Vs AZRI. One of them, wrote a response under the pen-name of “Mark” to the last post on this subject, which you can read here.
“Mark” put it this way: “We are at a point in history when fuel price trends, sustainability concerns, housing inaffordability and international recognition of our desert ranges landscape are all coming together to strongly suggest that higher density apartment living close enough to services that residents could live car-free should they choose is the way ahead. So what is Alice going to do? Build another vast far-flung dormitory suburb of premium priced McMansions which can only be reached by a car, the sort of development which the coastal cities have done to death and now openly regret.”
“Mark” proposed multi-storey apartment developments of the style proposed for Melanka as the solution to our housing issue. Interestingly architect Domencio Pecorari came up with a similar solution in the Centralian Advocate – albeit somewhat more thought out. This involves creating population-dense hubs around town shopping areas. And of course Domenico is a strong opponent of the Melanka proposal, while ‘Mark’ ridicules the idea that such developments would spoil the view from downtown Alice because of its “already depressing sprawl of concrete retail sheds, tatty car parks and neglected vacant lots across much of the CBD.”
Straw dog there. Actually, the opponents of the Melanka proposal weren’t talking about the view of the buildings but the view beyond them to our (literally) gorgeous ranges. Why should we have to get in those cars or go trekking in order to appreciate them? But you are right, Mark. Everyone knows that we need multi-storey apartment buildings. The questions are: how many, how high and where? Willy nilly is not what we need.
In the past twenty years Alice’s population has been relatively slow, despite the development of several new subdivisions. The figures suggest a changing demographic: smaller families often living in the same sort of houses that baby boomers built. Maybe Alice will grow faster, given the chance. Perhaps a spurt and then a levelling-out, which has been the pattern in the past.
Whatever the future may hold, do we really need to turning the housing issue into an ideological battlefield? In this debate there has been too much sterotyping and point-scoring, and too little effort to reach a satisfactory compromise. With a little more planning and a little less panic, there are some creative ways forward here that could please just about everyone. Targeted multi-storey development in the Mount John area, for example. Making better use of residential potential in the CBD. Could we put two storeys on top of the Post Office and have our very own Post Office Square? Parking might be an issue; in that case we could consider a building a matching multi-level carpark next door to accomodate both residents and shoppers. Just an idea, folks.
When you start to think about it, the monosyllabic planning solutions now before us (“Go up,” Go out,” or “Go up and go out,”) show at best a lack of imagination, and at worst a lack of foresight. Should the Council really be backing AZRI because it sees it as a good source of rate money? What about the cost to the whole town and its future, of building a potential Palmeston south of the Gap?
Aldermen have a chance before their next general meeting to reconsider their position – and show the leadership that would reveal the Council is worthy of a greater say in planning our town.
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G’Day Dave,
There seem to be too many of your ‘straw dogs’ floating around here.
Many of the issues are not either This or That
A few thoughts;
No one seems to be thinking about the problem with the Gap.
Headworks and sewerage for Undoolya ? What about composting, or low flow recycling of sewage water for gardens etc ?
Domenic’s idea of medium density housing is spot on, but it doesn’t have to be ‘high rise’
The old terrace house is space and energy efficient, with just two stories. And everyone gets a separate entrance and yard. Possibly a garage/carport if wanted.
The wasteful rail yards could be moved out to the Brewer estate with many benefits (leave the passenger terminal) I campaigned for this in the Council election of ’89
A great place for medium density, cost efficient, inner ‘city’ housing.
And with a bit of thought and good orientation and planning it can be ‘sustainable’ in a way that car based dormitory suburbs can never be.
I bumped into Ron Sterry at the supermarket the other day, he is making slow progress with his housing development on the south side of the range (Emily Hills?). When complete he will have 250 housing blocks available which seems like a solution but no-one is talking about it, why?
Hi Sally,
Too true.
Catching up with him next week.
hope you are well and happy.
Cheers
Dave,
Admittedly a nice, well designed and soundly build apartment building at the Melanka’s site would not do much for the view of the range from the KFC carpark (although I’m not sure its currently anyone’s favorite place to view them from.) but just think of the views FROM the apartment! Would beat the view from my current place (a road junction facing a shabby shared house with a bust sofa in their garden). I recon the south facing units at least would have million dollar views.
More seriously, how come no-one is picking up on the fact that the people who are genuinely facing a housing crisis in Alice are the LAST people who will be able to afford the price of an AZRI block, construction costs and the accompanying car-centred lifestyle that comes with it? I thought it was dreadful the way true stories of normal people doing essential but low paid job leaving town for lack of housing was used to create panic and bounce the council into voting for a new unaffordable luxury suburb.
Charlie’s idea of townhouses is interesting and would be cool if well-executed but I suspect it would end up resembling the modern English approach to such ‘pack-em-in’ low-rise housing; square kilometers of claustrophobic Legoland. But I guess any form of development can be a disaster if the lowest standards of materials, design and siting are used. I still favour high rise. The environmental case for it is well established and anyone who has spent time in modern Spain can tell you that stylish, comfortable apartments designed specifically for a hot arid climate are an everyday reality over there. I’d cheerfully trade my old housing commission brick box for one of those (but in Alice of course)! The unavailability of land around Alice is a constraint which could be turned to the town’s advantage with a good dose of courage and vision.
Hi Mark
Very good point you make about the unsuitability of AZRI in providing housing solutions for the people who need it most. As for medium-density (MD) housing: it doesn’t need to be hi-rise at all. A great example of well-designed MD housing in this town is the development on the corner of Sturt Terrace and Renner Street, Eastside, designed in the 1990s by Brendan Meney for the developer, Tony Karacic. It’s a mix of single and double-storey, one, two and three-bedroom units with well-landscaped, maintained gardens. It put some 13 units on two former single house lots, representing a seven-fold increase in housing capacity, without the usual developer-driven “rubber stamp” approach of identical units, all in a row. Check it out, and then imagine how this kind of re-development, located around our closest suburban centres (Northside, Milner Rd shops) could help make The Alice a much more sustainable place in which to live, not only economically and environmentally, but socially and culturally.