RETAIL STUDIES
URPS has assisted several councils in the preparation of retail studies and Development Plan Amendments (DPAs). Two recent studies and associated DPAs include the City of Salisbury's Neighbourhood Centres Discussion Paper and DPA and the City of Playford's Neighbourhood Centres Study and DPA.
The City of Salisbury study involved the establishment of evaluation criteria for 11 possible neighbourhood centres (NCe) sites and stakeholder consultation about them. The study considered a variety of factors, including retail development trends (e.g. desired location, catchments and centre size); the potential impact of the proposed sites on other centres; the validity of different retail assessment models (e.g. retail gravity model Vs traditional market assessment); an appreciation of the different opinions of retail property owners and retailers (e.g. tenant supermarkets); and traffic management issues.
The study ultimately selected a site that has resulted in a DPA that promotes the establishment of an NCe zone to accommodate a supermarket, speciality shops and bulky goods retailing. The establishment of the new zone is expected to promote greater competition while not substantially affecting the performance of existing district and regional centres.
URPS believes that generally the SA planning system (including the centre hierarchy principles) includes the appropriate framework to delivery COAG competition policies. Notwithstanding this position, the retail planning system should be continually reviewed to promote streamlining of required retail planning investigations and rezoning.
The City of Playford project sought to understand why 'some' of the older neighbourhood centres within the Elizabeth area are no longer performing at peak levels. Reasons include (i) their location on secondary collector roads, (ii) supermarkets that have small footprints by modern standards and therefore cannot provide a wide enough range of product choice, (iii) relatively low household income levels, (iv)changes in consumer shopping trends (e.g. the move away from shopping every three days or so to once a week or a fortnight, (v) dominance of the car, which promotes fewer shopping trips, and (vi) a lack of coordination of property owners who cannot commit to integrated upgrades to their centre. The project's objective was to amend planning policy in a manner that would promote the reuse and revitalisation of the centres (and their locality) by promoting mixed uses, while ensuring some base level of retail and community services are still available within walking distance of homes, particularly in those communities that have a high representation of aged persons, low incomes, and low car ownership.