Port Adelaide Football Club redevelopment plans raise the ire of Alberton locals

Plans for a $20 million upgrade of Port Adelaide’s home ground has left Alberton residents angry their peaceful neighbourhood could soon be ruined.

Images of Port Adelaide's proposed redevelopment of Alberton Oval

Alberton residents feel they have been neglected and betrayed by the Port Adelaide Football Club as it rolls forward with plans for a $20m upgrade of its home-ground.

The revamp would include a new soccer pitch and a basketball gymnasium – to both be used by other local sporting clubs – close to houses and replacing what is currently an open public park.

But to complicate matters, the eastern, southern and western borders of Alberton Oval are the borders of Port Adelaide Enfield Council – meaning the residents most closely affected come under a different council.

The redevelopment, announced by the club last month, would see the removal of a dozen regulated trees.

Alberton residents, including Peter Sossic (front, brown vest) are locked in a stoush with the Port Adelaide Football Club over a planned $20 million redevelopment of Alberton Oval and surrounds. Picture: Naomi Jellicoe

An industrial-style 12.8m tall basketball gym, set 10m back from the road, would also be built on the oval’s western side on what is currently an open park – and directly across from houses.

That park space is currently used for parking on SANFL game days. The new development would provide only 12 additional parking spaces.

PAFC has indicated both the soccer pitch and basketball courts will be used by other clubs outside of business hours. The development is currently out for public notice – but only residents within 60m of it are allowed to make submissions to Port Adelaide Enfield’s development panel in support or opposition.

It would also require a change to Alberton Oval’s community land management plan, which PAE is set to discuss next month.

The council has already voted unanimously in support of the development.

Nearby resident Peter Sossic believed the loss of the park for carpark space would lead to more stress on surrounding streets – which belong to Charles Sturt Council – and other sporting clubs using the oval would create more traffic at night.

“They sing Never Tear us Apart, but they’re tearing apart the community,” Mr Sossic said.

“You move in here and you move next to a football club and you know what to expect.

“We just don’t want things to be different to what they are now.”

He said the club had been “ham-fisted” in its dealings with the community.

Pasquale Rinaldi, whose house is opposite where the basketball gym would be built, said he was “devastated” by the proposal – and was considering moving out of the area.

The basketball gym to face Seventh Ave.

“It would look like a big industrial shed – something that belongs in a commercial precinct,” Mr Rinaldi said.

“(Football) event days are packed, and I can live with that, but I would say basketball and soccer weren’t part of it when I moved in and it doesn’t belong here.”

Another resident, Darren Hill, said PAFC were “basically doing what the Crows tried to do in the Parklands”.

A PAFC spokesman said the club had already held a community meeting and would “continue to engage the community to ensure the project delivers a high performance sport and community precinct that everyone will have access to and be proud of”. The spokesman did not answer questions about how often the basketball courts and soccer pitches would be used by other clubs. .

A Charles Sturt Council spokeswoman said the council had been contacted by Port Adelaide Enfield to say it would contacts its residents for feedback on Alberton Oval.