Kay Anastassiadis
2022 candidate for City of Unley.
Heritage survey responses.
Do you think that Councils and community members need to have a greater voice in planning and development decisions affecting their local area?
Yes they do. The changes to the development approval system have significantly reduced the influence of councils and community members in planning and development decisions. There is a need for more balance by giving councils and community members a greater voice. The current system is not as transparent and accountable as it has been and should be. The Planning and Design Code remains complex and labyrinthine and is beyond being easily understood and applied by people with high literacy levels. It is creating considerable distress and despair not only because of the decisions being made but also the negative impact it has on community members and councils in trying to exercise some small measure of influence. There have also been significant decisions where things of important heritage value to the community are being given away often for poorly designed low quality and perhaps unattractive developments.What role should Councils play in protecting local heritage places from demolition or inappropriate development?
Councils should have a greater statutory role in protecting local heritage places from demolition or inappropriate development and they should be empowered to work with developers and community members to work through options for meeting the different needs for upgrading or developing a heritage site.How would you seek to improve protections for heritage places in your area?
The power to protect needs to be based in legislation. The current Planning and Design Code needs to be amended to encourage repurposing of heritage buildings rather than the current behaviour of razing sites. We should have a State Heritage Commission empowered to work with developers, councils, heritage advisers and the community to provide advice on how to retain and preserve heritage buildings, make renovations or extensions or to repurpose heritage buildings and sites in other ways so that modern living values, sustainability and DDA requirements can be met. The community's understanding of the value of preserving and protecting heritage buildings and places has been strongly influenced by the desire for modern open space living areas and certainly driven by developers making it easier to create greater infill with larger homes at lower cost. We need to have a voice that helps the community understand what options they have. There are other things that can be done such as encouraging people to understand the history of their houses or places they work in and to value that environment. We should establish heritage awards and provide information on examples which achieve heritage outcomes as well as great renovations or the repurposing of heritage buildings and sites.We rarely see new places added to local heritage listings. Why do you think this is?
We need to establish a better understanding of what heritage means in the community and across government i.e. it is not just Victorian buildings; it is about the importance of the past including the industrial past, what places were built and how they were used, the role design plays in influencing change in the built form or parks and gardens, the different building forms since the 1910s (Edwardian, Queen Anne, Arts and Craft, Californian bungalows, Tudor, post war and modern 20th Century), changes to the idea of design, the quality of build and increasingly, place making. We have, in the rush to allow developers to build, lost sight of this understanding and knowledge. We've allowed cheek by jowel development with very little open space that does not compensate for loss of front gardens and backyards. There has been a shift in housing expectations and this has been largely driven by developers. The identification of sites as heritage sites needs to have an active process of identification or heritage creation. We do not seem to have this process any more. We need a new State Heritage Commission that has the necessary statutory powers to do this effectively and supports councils and the community to protect and preserve our heritage.How has the Planning and Design Code impacted on the heritage, amenity, and environment of your area? What changes would you seek to the Code?
The Planning and Design Code has adversely impacted on the heritage, amenity and environment of the area. More infill has resulted in significant loss of trees on private land with too small areas of soft deep soil, which means there is little or no future capacity to replace this loss with new trees growing on private land over time. There has also been an impact public land by requiring more driveways resulting in less space for trees on public land. There are also concerns with increased flooding due to the level of infill and in the urban heat sink effect because of a failure to design and build sustainability and have sufficient tree canopy. The Code must address impacts such as: heritage protection, flood mitigation, parking and local traffic management, local amenity, establishing sustainable development standards, having a higher % of soft land fill, retaining existing trees and the tree canopy, overlooking, valuing gardens and ensuring there is access to sunlight, requiring the size of developments to be more sustainable among other things.What are the impacts of infill development in your area? What changes would you seek in the rules around infill development?
Please see the above response which outlines the impacts of infill development and some of the changes I would like to see in the rules. The increased use of cars and local roads is making inner metropolitan living a problem with many people complaining about speeding on local roads or lack of parking. It should be noted that apartments and housing infill development was predicated on a sales pitch that they would be transport oriented development and would result in an increase in public transport frequency and would allow greater reliance on bicycling and walking. So far this proposition has not been achieved as promised. There is little evidence of increases in public transport frequency and there is a continuing reliance on cars as the main means of transport in their design.Construction of new housing typically uses 30% labour and 70% materials. Renovation of existing housing stock typically uses 70% labour and 30% materials. What policy changes would you like to see made to encourage people to renovate, rather than demolish and build anew?
I would like to see incentives for sensitive renovation and disincentives for demolishing and building anew. These could be in the form of a rate rebate for the former and a rate increase for the latter noting that there are current legal difficulties in doing this. There needs to be a change to State legislation to allow for policy incentive / disincentive schemes of this type. There also should be workshops and resources available to inform and educate the community about the value of renovation over demolition.How should the community be informed and involved in decisions about new developments?
The immediate and wider community should be informed via notices delivered in their post box for the former and public notices in newspapers and on state and council planning websites. Communities should be a priority for communication i.e. they should pretty much be the first to know.Do you think there is adequate tree canopy across your local government area?
It is for the moment but it is at a precipice with the continued felling of trees on private land for new developments and it is this action that will result in a significant decrease over time, if it is not reversed.How would you like to see significant and regulated trees in your area protected from removal?
I would like to see stronger protection for trees from removal. I would like to see a higher qualification introduced for arborists and stronger industry standards and regulation. It is time to introduce scientific methods for ascertaining the health of trees. I would also like to see more education of the community about trees, especially about the role played by medium and tall canopy trees, their value for the environment and the community and that addresses the myths about trees which remain a convenient excuse for their removal. These are wonderful living creatures that are critical for biodiversity and community wellbeing and they need looking after and protection.What involvement should Councils have in decisions about protecting or removing significant and regulated trees?
Councils should have a statutory role to protect in the first instance and to approve the removal of a significant or regulated tree as an action of last resort when there is no other option but to do so. There should be common standards for making such decisions and that they are robust and stand up to close scrutiny.What actions would you advocate to slow or mitigate the impacts of climate change in your local government area?
I would like to see the development of a community wide energy and climate action plan. There are any number of actions that should be undertaken at the individual, council, state and federal government levels. A community energy and climate action plan can step out what can be done by individuals as well as on a community wide basis. It will allows us to identify and apply for state or federal grants or funding schemes such as local community battery storage or other energy grid systems that ensure community protection and resilience against blackouts or system overloads. Having a plan will also provide us with data on what we have achieved in carbon emissions reductions and that in turn allows us to advocate for reducing those carbon emissions which are not local such as those from main roads traffic CO2 emissions which is a state government responsibility.What issues are there with traffic and parking in your area?
As an inner metropolitan council area, issues with traffic and parking are significant and will only worsen. Our streets were never designed to have so many cars and for so many people to be so reliant on them. Everything competes on our streets and footpaths - walking, wheeling, cycling, trees, driving and parking cars. There are hundreds of all day park and walk/ride commuters from outside the city parking in the city along with people wanting to park near where they work in local businesses, schools etc. as well as those wishing to park to visit a business. The change in the types of businesses that we now have has also increased parking demand on local streets. Some locals have particular disability or other issues and need to ensure they have better off-street parking access. Our streets are public spaces and we need to look at the long term to ensure appropriate and fair consideration of all interests. In particular we need to consider what street redesign ensures safe walking, cycling and wheeling, better flood mitigation, better greening and tree canopy and are places in which the community can recreate.How could transport options be improved in your area?
We need a state integrated transport plan that focuses on moving people efficiently in all directions. Ideally we need better mass transit systems in Adelaide such as a metro. Buses should not have to compete with other traffic on all roads. The transport system needs to be and become the prefered system for commuting and transit just like it is in New York and Paris. The city cannot sustain further growth without such a system. Increasing frequency of buses is needed in the interim. We also need to implement the northern and southern bypasses for heavy trucks. They should not be reliant on inner metropolitan roads for getting from A to B. Alongside these actions, metropolitan wide cycling and wheeling infrastructure is required. We have very little and it is slowly developed. This cycling/wheeling infrastructure needs to be wider and better for everyone to be safer regardless of whether they ride a bike, use an e-scooter, a mobility device or other emerging transport devices. Our current cycling/wheeling infrastructure is too narrow and congestion and conflict between different users is becoming a problem.What would your top three priorities be for improving planning policy and outcomes in your local government area?
Strengthen heritage and tree protections and arborist qualifications.
Review and improve the the Planning and Design Code to promote heritage renovation over demolish and build anew.
Implement sustainable development standards.