Jessica Irvine is right when she blames the high price of housing in Australia on the rising cost of land in our cities ("How NIMBY protests put homes out of reach" Sunday Mail 9/6/13). But she is wrong to attribute this relative scarcity of urban land to selfish surbanites unwilling to sell off their back-gardens to developers of multi-storey flats. The real culprit is the policies of State governments across Australia restricting the release of new suburban allotments due to their belief in urban consolidation. In the USA where State governments do not restrict the supply of land for new housing, houses are much cheaper than in Australia. It is not the people who already own houses stopping others have access to them Jessica, it is State government policies.

Why is there such strong community resistance to proposals for higher density housing in Adelaide’s suburbs? Australian social planner and ethicist, Dr. Wendy Sarkissian argues that we need a “more sensitive and emotionally intelligent” approach to city planning. This is a summary of her presentation on Wednesday 29th May. The presentation is available online.

Evonne, the SPRA spokeswoman, did ask Wendy how would she suggest that 10-storey flats proposed to be introduced into the inner suburbs close to single-storey residential areas be designed well and sensitively. There was a long silence before Wendy spoke. She said there needs to be guidelines and criteria to protect neighbourhoods in terms of ovderlooking, traffic etc. There are several volumes of guidelines for buildings on Wendy’s Website. You should not debate individual sites, she said, you need general criteria.

"In view of the State Labor government forcing councils to allow controversial multi-storey flats to be built all over Adelaide, we are bringing Miles Lewis over from Melbourne to speak with Adelaide residents on this issue," said Stephen Fisher, President of Save Our Suburbs - Adelaide.

"Miles is the author of "Suburban Backlash: Battle for the World's Most Liveable City" and "Two Hundred Years of Concrete in Australia". He is a long-term critic of the sort of haphazard housing densification which Adelaide is suffering from.

"Save Our Suburbs invites residents, councillors, the press and everyone concerned about the future of residential development in Adelaide to come along at 8.00 pm on Wednesday 19th of June next to the Don Pyatt Hall in the Norwood Town Hall complex, 175 The Parade, Norwood (entrance off George Street) to hear Miles and to talk with him," he added.

On Monday night 29th of April a forum on planning issues was held in the Norwood Town Hall. Sponsored by Community Alliance, residents from across Adelaide heard politicians, planners and conservationists talk about their vision for Adelaide and problems with the current planning system.

Speakers included Nick Xenophon federal MP, Vicky Chapman Liberal Party spokeswoman on planning, Mark Parnell Greens Party MLC and John Rau Minister for Planning. Nick Xenophon said new housing development should be focussed on the City Centre square mile, not on the inner suburbs. Vicky Chapman acknowledged that there is a problem with the current planning system with many people feeling angry, bewildered and disenfranchised. People want to be involved in the planning for their areas at the start, not at the end, she said.

About Time 2013, organised by History SA and which will run from the 1st to 31st May, is one of South Australia’s largest community events. The festival promotes the State’s wonderful collections, places and stories through an amazing range of history-related activities. About Time began in 2004 as SA History Week and has grown each year, becoming a month-long festival in 2011. Its popularity and success is due to the hard work and enthusiasm of the event organisers, including thousands of volunteers, who are passionate about sharing our history.

This year there are many events in the Norwood, Payneham & St Peters area, which residents may be interested in attending. These events include guided walks, bus tours, talks and exhibitions. The details of these local events are listed below.
The History SA website gives details of the entire programme throughout the state.

John Rau's arrogance and disdain for people who disagree with him was clear to see in his article "Population growth debate must expand" (The Advertiser 16/4/13). Mr. Rau attacks Kevin O'Leary's articles for your paper as being based not on facts but merely on opinion. I have read many of Mr. O'Leary's articles and they appear to be based on sound facts and sound reasoning.

Mr. Rau has dismissed concerns that housing people in multi-storey flats on major arterial roads with significant air pollution contributes to disease and health problems. I understand that there is solid international and Australian research which attests to these negative health impacts. In a recent report in the Advertiser, the Australian Medical Association claimed that more people die in Australia from air pollution than from motor vehicle accidents.

Marking SA’s About Time history month

Two events with a focus on Adelaide and whether we can find a balance between development and heritage conservation, and between urban density and community aspirations.

Has South Australia given up on heritage?

Wednesday 8 May, 6pm Bradley Forum, UniSA City West campus

Not in my backyard: Community responses to higher density living - is it all in the mind?

Wednesday 29 May, 6pm, Allan Scott Auditorium, UniSA City West campus (recorded presentation)

Greens MP Mark Parnell has legislation before Parliament which aims to prevent planning rule changes coming into effect before public consultation about the changes has been completed. This was recently the case in the Adelaide City Council area where heights of multi-storey flats were hugely lifted by a Development Plan Amendment and developers came in and lodged their applications to which they gained approval before local residents had put their comments into the City Council about the changed rules.

A public forum on planning, titled The Great NIMBY or QUIMBY Forum is to be held on 29th April 2013 at 7.00 pm in the Norwood Town Hall.

What is the planning future of Greater Adelaide? Can QUALITY IN MY BACKYARD be expected? Or will it be a DEVELOPERS’ DREAM and promote a NOT IN MY BACKYARD attitude? A report on the forum has been published.

The event is sponsored by Community Alliance SA. Please promote this event using the twitter tag #QUIMBYSA.

Daniela Abbracciavento covered the council meeting where Norwood, Payneham & St Peters Council decided to hold public meeting and forum on River Torrens building height changes. The article has been published in the Eastern Courier.

SPRA is pleased with this outcome, when the alternative motion proposed by Mayor Bria was to close the workshops to the public. The expectation of SPRA is that the public meeting will be about concerns raised by residents in submissions to the rezoning proposals in the Development Plan Amendments now under consideration by Council. On the issue of degradation of the natural environment by dense blocks of multi-storey flats next to the Linear Park, residents are encouraged to read the Billabong Achievement at Risk and Influence of Linear Park on Coastal Water Quality articles for an understanding of the potential impacts.