A NEW $1 million go-kart and laser skirmish amusement park planned for Evanston South has received an overwhelmingly positive response from the Gawler and surrounding community.
The Bunyip broke the news of the pending development in last week’s edition, revealing the facility – which is the brainchild of Gawler’s Greg Cowie and his partner Sonya Edwards – would also hope to include a rock climbing wall and ‘reball’ arena in future.
The community shared messages of support for the park, to be called ‘Kartastrophic’, on The Bunyip’s social media channels, with many saying the idea is great for Gawler.
“This will be awesome – we need more for kids and families to do out north,” Facebook user Kirsty Amanda said.
Detailed plans of the park were released on Gawler Council’s website last Wednesday, for a two-week public consultation period ending on June 19, and shed light on the size and scope of the development.
Kartastrophic, if approved, would be established on 2.8 hectares of land at 22 Tiver Road, and would have opening
hours of 10am to 8pm, seven days a week.
The park intends to incorporate two tracks – one for
children using electric karts, and another for adults using petrol-powered karts – with no more than 10 karts operating
on each track at any one time.
A five-metre-high acoustic barrier would be erected along the facility’s Tiver Road frontage, to shield residents in the nearby Aspire housing development from any noise, and there would be a provision of 30 onsite parking spaces.
It is anticipated up to 100 patrons could visit the park over the course of a weekend, under the supervision of six to seven staff.
In a report to council, urban planner Ben Green stated Kartastrophic, despite currently being a non-complying development within a rural-zoned area, “warrants the granting of development plan consent, subject to public notification and concurrence from the State Commission
Assessment Panel”.
“The subject land and locality have not been developed for rural or agricultural purposes for an extended period, and it would be very difficult and potentially unfeasible in both economic and environmental terms to remediate the subject land,” he stated.
“The proposed activities...have been demonstrated to achieve the requirements of the Noise Environment Protection Policy when measured from the nearest noise receivers.
Residents can provide feedback on the development by
visiting www.gawler.sa.gov.au/your-voice/15146/490-
451-2018-category-3-notification-22-tiver-road-evanston-
south