City Council push to stop construction of Adelaide Oval hotel

City councillors will vote this week on a motion to block construction of a proposed $42 million luxury hotel on parklands property surrounding the eastern side of Adelaide Oval.

• The plans for a hotel at Adelaide Oval
• The mixed reaction from our readers
• New Lord Mayor is ready to spearhead the opposition

A vote to block construction of a proposed $42 million luxury hotel on parklands property surrounding Adelaide Oval will be put forward by city councillors this week.

Councillor Anne Moran said plans by the State Government to underwrite the Stadium Management Authority’s construction of a 128-room hotel were “inconsistent” with the Act governing use of the parklands.

Cr Moran said she would put forward the motion, to be seconded by fellow councillor Robert Simms, at the City Council’s final meeting for the year on Tuesday.

The motion says that the hotel would be “inconsistent with the statutory principles of the Adelaide Park Lands Act 2005 and the values of the National Heritage Listing of the Adelaide Park Lands and City Layout under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Act 1999’’.

As “custodians of the area’’, council had the right to withhold “landlord consent”, Cr Moran said.

Adelaide Lord Mayor Sandy Verschoor with councillors Mary Couros, Anne Moran and Helen Donovan. Picture: Russell Millard/AAP

Adelaide’s new Lord Mayor, Sandy Verschoor, has already foreshadowed that she is prepared to fight the State Government over the proposed hotel development.

Last week, Ms Verschoor said the Adelaide Oval precinct was parklands leased from the City Council to the relevant state minister, then to the Stadium Management Authority with conditions for its ongoing use by the South Australian Cricket Association and SANFL.

Premier Steven Marshall has supported the Stadium Management Authority’s “continual push for diversified revenue’’ but said that the State Government would only provide a commercial loan for the project and that no public money would be spent on it.

The Stadium Management Authority, along with its SACA and SANFL partners, had prepared the business case for a hotel as part of plans to offset the oval’s ongoing running costs with a regular income stream that is not dependent on events.

Adelaide Oval would become the first stadium in Australia to feature an integrated hotel under plans revealed by the Stadium Management Authority.