The Living City Open Space Strategy

The original Open Space Recreation Strategy was written to provide direction to the development and management of open space assets within the City of Unley between 2004 and 2014. It is now appropriate to establish a new strategy that builds on the legacy of the last 10 years and responds to the long term vision and goals for the City of Unley set out in the 2013 Community Plan. Open space covers a multitude of meanings and fulfils multiple functions in the urban environment. Typically the green spaces are recognised, yet there are a range of other spaces that are ancillary to the parks and ovals; they are the spaces between and around buildings, spaces that play complimentary roles, and fullfill other essential social, cultural, economic and environmental functions. These ‘other’ important open spaces enable people to interact with the environment and with each other, as a community. These spaces become the places, they are the scene of incidental occurrences as we go about our daily lives. Ultimately they become the experience of living in a city. The aspiration of this strategy is to provide the best quality of living for the City of Unley. The experience of living in Unley, at home, at work, walking to the local park, or whilst shopping in the main streets; all of these experiences are components to the urban pattern. This strategy necessarily recasts open space in this broader context, as the Living City.
The Open Space Strategy is an aspirational document that address the following long term challenges facing the City of Unley:: ^aEURc increasing demands on the open space network from a growing residential and worker population within the City ^aEURc increasing management and maintenance demands associated with ageing open space infrastructure as well as climate change adaption ^aEURc changing needs and uses by the local community, including increasing young families and retirees ^aEURc opportunities to establish new open spaces, as well as opportunities to better connect existing open spaces ^aEURc open space partnerships with federal and state government agencies, as well as local stakeholders and the surrounding Councils ^aEURc classification of important parks, streets and public spaces across the whole of the city ^aEURc opportunities for change to improve city amenity, enhance long term presentation and appeal for all ^aEURc support existing Council efforts in asset renewal / upgrade, adding consistency and maximising value of investment ^aEURc flexibility in long term planning to ensure opportunities for future growth positively adds to the way of life within the City.. The strategy is intended to be a highly graphical and easily understood document to enable integration with other Council strategies and to better communicate with our partners.
The original strategy established a 10 year vision to guide the delivery and management of open spaces across the City of Unley. It provided direction to the distribution, design and maintenance of a hierarchy of open space types, as well as the identification of key social, cultural and environmental themes. Where appropriate, the strategy identified opportunities to increase Council’s open space contribution across the city, in particular in areas with limited access to open spaces. The 2011 review of the strategy’s level of achievement, assessed that over 80% of the actions identified were on track for implementation prior to 2014. The new Open Space Strategy builds upon this achievement, recognising this success and the fundamentals of open space appropriately prescribed in the previous strategy.