Salisbury North
The effectiveness of evaluating any project is limited when the evaluation is undertaken after the project is completed. For this reason, the Salisbury North project involved three different evaluations to track changes as the project progressed.
Commencing in 2004, URPS, in association with Truscott Research and Peter Rossini (UniSA), undertook three annual evaluations of the Salisbury North Urban Renewal Project. The first evaluation involved an analysis of the project's objectives and the establishment of the indicators and benchmarking data. Subsequent evaluations used the same indicators, thereby allowing trends to be clearly mapped.
Methods used to inform the indicators included a community perception survey and schools survey; focus group discussions; analysis of ABS data; and analysis of a range of other data, including policing, traffic, Valuer-General and property data.
Key conclusions from the three evaluations included noted improvements in several indicators, including business confidence, length of tenancy, internet use, perceptions of safety, and median house prices. There were also areas where there were unexpected reductions in performance indicators, including primary school turnover rates, per cent changes in median house prices, and participation in local activities and clubs. These clear and documented trends will inform the development of policy and action in future urban renewal projects.