Sandy Wilkinson, undertook this analysis of the potential of Jetty Road, Glenelg further to the recent initiative of the City of Holdfast Bay to commit to a $40m makeover of Jetty Road.

The $40m make over entailed new paving and lighting etc but ignores the buildings that line Jetty Road.

There are 3 sides to every high street, the city of Holdfast Bay in this instance has focused only on the Public Realm, whilst ignoring the other two sides of the street, being the buildings that define it.

One could pave the street with gold and that won’t improve the overall presentation and appeal of the street if the buildings that line it are neglected or demolished and replaced with out of scale new development.

Sandy Wilkinson, who is a Heritage Consultant, and director of ALEXANDER WILKINSON DESIGN, did a walking survey of Jetty Road and identified the historic buildings that are presently not listed and therefore not protected from demolition.

These buildings were then indicated on a satellite map of Jetty Road, taken from the Planning Portal which indicated that there were only about half a dozen listed buildings on Jetty Road.

Many of these buildings were spoilt in the 1960’s but could be restored to their former glory.

The problem is that commercial property owners typically do not place value on the appearance of their commercial property.

It is interesting however, how building owners in the 1960’s and 70s were happy to spend money ‘modernising’ their building but seem to reluctant to spend money improving particularly the upper level of their commercial buildings today.

That is why Council money would be better spent on heritage listing and restoring the run down or compromised buildings rather than re-doing the public realm.

There is the opportunity to capitalise on

Jetty Road’s historic character by:

1. Protecting all of the historic buildings that remain.
2. Requiring all new development replacing non historic buildings to maintain the same height as the prevailing historic and human scale of the street.
3. Setting taller apartment development substantially back (12+m) so as to not spoil and overwhelm  the consistent scale of the street.

To this end, Sandy Wilkinson has prepared a section that shows how the lack of historic demolition protection and the current Urban Corridors Zone allowances of up to 6-8 storey development set back just 2m from the frontage could ruin Jetty Road by:

1. Driving the demolition and replacement of its unlisted historic 2-storey buildings.
2. Spoiling the historic human scale of the street.
3. Overshadowing the sunny southern side of the street in the cooler months.

The section indicates more significant setback on the northern side of the street than the southern side of the street, to not only maintain the human scale, but importantly maintain the sun to the southern footpath.

 There’s nothing more appealing for a restaurant or café for diners to sit outside in the sun on a sunny winter’s day. Who wants to sit and have lunch in the shade of some apartment building on the northern side of the street.