Junction Australia plans five-storey social housing complex planned for Anzac Hwy, Camden Park
It’s sat vacant for four years - now a large, prominent Anzac Highway site is earmarked for social and affordable housing, with buildings up to five storeys high.
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A development with buildings up to five storeys high has been earmarked for a former Housing Trust site on Anzac Highway, which has sat vacant for four years.
Junction Australia is planning the $20 million complex at Camden Park, featuring 54 homes, in a mix of social housing for tenants and affordable housing to sell to people on low to medium incomes.
The 4840sq m site at 411-415 Anzac Highway was razed in March 2015 – a year after tenants were moved out, attracting vandals and squatters.
Junction Australia chief executive Maria Palumbo said if approved, construction would begin around February, taking about 18 months.
The project will feature 15 townhouses and two flat buildings, comprising a total of 39 apartments.
Junction Australia plans to keep 15 of the units – in four- and five-storey buildings fronting Anzac Highway – for renters. It will sell the remainder of the homes.
Twelve two-storey townhouses will front the Westside Bikeway Reserve and three will look over Clifton St.
Ms Palumbo said her organisation aimed to make it easier for people to find affordable homes to rent and buy.
“People’s ability to buy housing is reducing – the gap is getting wider and wider all the time between people’s earnings and what house prices are,” Ms Palumbo said.
“It’s important that we have got options for people where it feels like they can still have a sense of a place that’s theirs. It’s very hard to feel connected to a place if you’re constantly at the whim of a landlord.”
Many of the organisation’s tenants are older people, have disabilities or are single women, and Junction Australia charges about 75 per cent of the market rental value.
During community consultation, three submissions raised concerns about the proposal including its potential to overlook a retirement village and a nearby childcare centre, create parking congestion and interrupt the “free flowing nature of the bike path”.
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Junction Australia says the nearest retirement village is 40m away so there will be no overlooking, the childcare centre’s outdoor play areas will not be visible and the development will encourage passive surveillance to the reserve on Creslin Tce.
The proposal is due to be assessed by the West Torrens Council Assessment Panel on Tuesday night, with staff recommending its approval.
The project will provide work for 20 people during construction.