Buildings of up to seven-storeys will now be possible on the doorstep of St Clair Railway Station under a Code Amendment approved by the State Government.
The St Clair Code Amendment rezones a vacant 4,766 square metre allotment on the corner of Cheltenham Parade and St Clair Avenue, next to St Clair Village Shopping Centre, to support an integrated mixed-use redevelopment of the combined 2.1 hectare site.
Preliminary work indicates the site could accommodate around 390 new apartments, alongside an expanded retail offering, depending on final design and staging.
Maximum building heights across the site will lift from four storeys (15 metres) to seven storeys (26 metres). A minimum height of two levels will also help prevent under-development of a prime transit-connected location.
The vacant land, formerly part of the Cheltenham Racecourse, will move from the Urban Renewal Neighbourhood Zone into the Suburban Activity Centre Zone, giving it the same planning rules as the shopping centre next door.
St Clair Village already serves a trade area of more than 63,000 residents, projected to reach almost 79,000 by 2046, with local retail spending forecast to grow from $890 million to $1.3 billion over the same period.
The site sits immediately north of St Clair railway station, roughly 15 minutes from the Adelaide CBD on the Outer Harbor, Osborne and Port Dock lines. It is also served by the J8 bus route along Cheltenham Parade, as well as a walking and cycling shared use path.
Existing interface height rules over the shopping centre now apply across the whole site, requiring upper levels to be set back from sensitive boundaries to manage overshadowing and building bulk for neighbouring apartments.
The Code Amendment was released for eight weeks of community consultation, including three drop-in sessions at the shopping centre, with all submissions considered before the decision was made.
The approval follows the State Government's move last month to allow investigations and public consultation on rezoning the Westfield West Lakes shopping centre to enable development for up to 2,000 homes surrounding the existing shopping centre. It reflects the same approach of more housing on well-serviced centre sites with existing infrastructure.