Written by Alan Kerlin Thursday, 23 August 2007 04:04
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From: Alan Kerlin
Sent: Thursday, 23 August 2007 8:34
To: Jon Stanhope; Andrew Barr
Canberra Times; Chronicle
Subject: Defence office proposal
Dear Chief Minister and Minister Barr,
I wish to draw your attention to this morning's article in the Canberra Times about Defence seeking to build new offices on a large scale.
I ask you to please make every effort to pursue location of these offices at Gungahlin.
We already have many Defence houses here, and with the lion's share of development in the immediate future to be here also, it makes good planning, transport and environmental sense to have the workplaces and homes of so many people close together.
You already have the Business Park land adjacent to Gundaroo Drive and the Emergency Services centre ready to release. If this is not big enough, then there is the large tract of land on the east side of the town centre earmarked under the draft Territory Plan to be converted from Residential to C2 Commercial. You will see from our submission on the draft Territory Plan that we support this amendment, and indeed support raising the maximum height limit from four to eight storeys (with appropriate transitioning) to improve development viability.
Picture the beautiful and energy efficient architecture and the surrounding spaces of the Brindabella Business Park, but in a sensible location close to everything. That's what we are asking you to encourage for Gungahlin.
And I have already been assured by one major Canberra office developer that they want to develop at Gungahlin but can't get you to release land for auction. So contrary to what we have been told in the past, there is indeed demand for major development in our area.
What are the alternatives? Russell - difficult site and major expenses for the ACT Government correcting resultant traffic issues - plus there're no services there - it's only a matter of time before you are pressured to allow commercial development there to service the offices. Civic - again the transport expenses resulting would be enormous.
This is a big opportunity to encourage a major ground-breaking development in the Gungahlin Town Centre - please seize it.
Regards,
Alan Kerlin
President
Gungahlin Community Council
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