Springvale Community Hub Project

 

The Springvale Community Hub is located on the eastern side of Springvale Road and near the Springvale retail precinct.

It is the former location of the City’s Civic Precinct and was flagged for development in Council’s Springvale Civic Master Plan in 2012–13.

The Hub has been developed to build on the unique strengths of the Springvale community and surrounds, and aims to create a Community and civic heart in Springvale.

The development seeks to strengthen community connections and improve educational outcomes, while addressing the need for new and improved facilities. This will be achieved through the provision of an integrated and flexible space that meets the needs of current and future generations.

Community Connection

The Springvale Community Hub will be a community centred place of connection. To achieve this Council will facilitate management of the Hub, working closely with local community. This will involve taking a proactive place based community development approach, working with individuals, community groups and other stakeholders to fulfil the vision of the Hub.

Council officers will work with the local community to ensure:

• the hub is community centred 
• fair, affordable, transparent and equitable access is provided to all. 
• accessible and open lines of communication for groups or individuals to identify and progress community led initiatives, 
• access and assistance if required.

Community Development and Place Making in practice at the hub will look like: 

• Collaboration – Linking communities, individuals, groups, agencies and Council
• Self Determination – Enabling people and communities to make own decisions
• Empowerment – helping others to develop and grow in confidence, career, life and choices
• Collective Action – gathering people and organisations together to have a stronger voice
• Shared Experience – working and learning together to help increase understanding and empathy

About the project

The Springvale precinct at 397- 405 Springvale Road has been transformed into the new community heart of Springvale. It is be a vibrant meeting place where people of all ages, backgrounds and interests feel welcome and can come together in a spirit of mutual respect, connection and celebration. World-class community facilities will combine with large, multipurpose green spaces to provide the perfect setting for learning, playing and relaxing.

The project was delivered in two stages:

Stage 1 - Springvale City Hall redevelopment

Refurbishment works to the Springvale City Hall and Supper Room are complete. This major renovation has turned the town hall into a more functional facility while preserving the overall design character of this much-loved community building. The majority of works were undertaken on the inside of the building to allow a more diverse range of private and public events to be held there in the future. Springvale Town Hall has reopened and is now open for bookings.

Stage 2 - Construction of Springvale Community Hub

This world-class community facility will provide a variety of learning, leisure and cultural opportunities. It will include a modern, state-of-the-art library featuring new technologies and equipment, flexible community meeting spaces, customer service area and plentiful parking. The outdoor green spaces will be extensively landscaped and allow for a variety of passive and active recreation uses, community events and social gatherings.

The new Springvale Library and Community Hub has been designed with holistic sustainability principles in mind and is targeting Net Zero Emissions for the building operations in addition to a 5-Star Green Star Rating. Operational emissions will be reduced through design features such as a high performance façade, efficient heating and cooling systems and low energy LED lighting. Further to this, the building intends to offset the remainder of its emissions though installation of a 220kW rooftop solar PV array. The array will consist of approximately 730 panels and generate 280MWh per year; that’s enough to power around 50 family homes each year. The sustainability of the City Hall has also been improved. 

 

Strategic Plan

The development of the Springvale Community Hub – Strategic Plan will guide the direction of the precinct for the next five years. The strategic plan will inform other plans for the site including programming and activation, venue hire, communications and open space use.

The plan will be accompanied by an annual action plan, informed by community consultation. The actions incorporated into each annual action plan will be informed by community feedback and needs or issues identified. This will be ratified through a report to Council every 12 months, including reporting on the status of each goal and measure which will also be available via the Council website.

The Strategic Plan aims to provide a direction for the Hub over the first five years, incorporating goals, aspirations and expectations while delivering on the vision 'Encouraging active participation in cultural exchange, creative celebrations and life-long learning, through a welcoming community hub that inspires learning and creative living'.

The Springvale Community Hub will be a community centred place of connection. To achieve this Council will facilitate management of the hub, working closely with local community. This will involve taking a proactive place-based community development approach, working with individuals, community groups and other stakeholders to fulfil the vision of the hub.

Springvale Community Hub – Strategic Plan

 

Community Involvement in the project

From the beginning, we've recognised the importance of involving the community and that’s something we intend to maintain throughout the various stages of this project.

In 2013, the community provided useful feedback to Council regarding the projects that were most important and this feedback has been incorporated into the development strategy and the design competition brief.

In April 2016, the community also provided their feedback on the design competition brief, which assisted submitters to develop design proposals that accurately met community needs.

Council also plans to undertake detailed facility planning and work with the community to ensure that the new facilities will support the needs of the community and the many organisations that use the precinct.

Next Steps in Consultation

The next stages of community consultation will commence and will include:

• Direct engagement with the general community, community groups, and agencies to identify priorities and preferred approaches to ongoing engagement and participation. 
  • This may include development of working groups, a reference committee, focus session and/or other feedback tools. Work together with the community to develop, deliver and refine their preferred method of ongoing public consultation at the hub. Information gathered through this consultation process will also inform the 2020-21 Annual Action Plan, that will be presented to Council and available for review on the Council website.