Plans for proposed Adelaide Oval hotel being blocked from public, parklands preservation group claims

Site plans for a boutique hotel at the Adelaide Oval — approved by the state’s planning authority — are being blocked from public view, the Adelaide Park Lands Preservation Association claims.

• Boutique hotel proposed for Adelaide Oval’s eastern grandstand
• Adelaide Oval hotel given development planning approval

Site plans for a boutique hotel wrapping around the Adelaide Oval’s eastern grandstand that were approved by the state’s planning authority are being blocked from public view, the Adelaide Park Lands Preservation Association claims.

Planning Minister Stephan Knoll says what was approved is what everyone has already seen regarding the proposal.

The proposal by the Stadium Management Authority (SMA), backed by a $42 million loan from the State Government, was given State Commission Assessment Panel approval just nine days after it lodged plans on December 12.

The process surrounding it was branded secretive and rushed and calls around the former strengthened when the Adelaide Park Lands Preservation Association claimed it was blocked from obtaining site plans and drawings.

Association president Shane Sody said one of the organisation’s members asked SCAP for the plans and was told they were “not for public notice”.

“This secrecy just makes the proposal even more dubious,” he said.

“Concealing the hotel plans would seem to be a mark of a Government running scared about the extent of public backlash.”

Artist impression of the interior of the proposed Adelaide Oval hotel.

Mr Knoll said there were already plans for the hotel online, released when the proposal was publicly announced.

“What has been approved (by SCAP) is what everyone has seen,” he told The Advertiser.

“What they would have gotten already is online.”

Because of changes made by former Planning Minister John Rau when Labor was in government, any development at Adelaide Oval and in the Parklands considered to be “complying” is classified as a Category 1 development.

This means they can be exempt from any form of public notification and consultation.

Mr Knoll said even though it was a complying development under the Adelaide Oval Redevelopment Act, the State Government made the SMA go through the Office for Design and Architecture “so they improved their design”.

“And they said to us that it did improve the design,” he said.

The operators of the Oval are now hunting for builders for the 128-room hotel.

The five-level building will be integrated with the eastern grandstand and east gate entry. It will be an Australian-first for a stadium.