Planning and development news

If you've been wondering about the roadworks on Gundaroo Drive south of Palmerston, that's one of the entrances to the new suburb of Crace, the other being from Nurdurr Ave, already built.

There are details about Crace on the ACTPLA page for the new Territory Plan in the concept plan.

Over the last year or so, we've been trying to get assurance from Andrew Barr that Nurdurr Road will be extended right through to Gungahlin Drv so Palmerston people don't cop a heap of rat-running. And the latest news is good.

Read more: Crace development under way

The ACT Government is at last recognising they dropped the ball with regard to land supply in Canberra, announcing an ambitious plan to release 15,000 over the next five years, with 6,000 of them in Gungahlin.

The LDA's capabilities will be truly stretched to the limit to deliver this, but whatever resources it takes, it has to be done. The situation here where demand has been artificially kept way above supply has been hurting Canberra residents badly by driving land prices way beyond where they need to be.

The star ratings farce continues.

The following from this Saturday's Canberra Times property liftout:

• Cosy Crs Harrison EER0 (brand new - means the builder doesn't want to declare their rating - what have they got to hide?)
• Ada Baker St Forde EER4 (not even completed yet!)
• Jenolan St Harrison EER3.5
• Redbank St Harrison EER3.5
• Whim St Harrison EER3.5
• Minnie Bruce St  Franklin EER4
• Eldorado St Harrison EER3.5

Everything at Harrison should be a minimum of 4, but later houses should be 5 - just can't tell as it depends on when their plans were lodged. Everything at Forde and Franklin should be 5 star - there should be no reason why brand new and not even completed houses have anything less than the minimum star rating (or better).

What's going on?

Don't buy houses with low star ratings - they will cost you more to run; they will be less comfortable for you to live in - summer and winter.

There was this one:
Judith Wright St Franklin EER 6 (against a minimum of 5 - well done)

Read more: Star ratings farce

Read more: Flemington Road townhouse tunnel UPDATE

The ABC is reporting the release of ABS stats that find that the most populous area in Canberra is Gungahlin. No surprise there, but the sheer extent of it sure is a surprise - against a Canberra average of 1000 per square kilometre, Gungahlin has 3000 people per square kilometre.

This just confirms what so many Gungahlin people have long suspected. Stupidly skinny streets with inadequate off-street parking for an area poorly serviced by both public transport and local employment, and row after row of cookie-cutter terrace houses.

Read more: Gungahlin population density highest in Canberra

Industry sources throughout Canberra are clear - there is not enough land available for business in Canberra.

The truth of this situation is backed up by the experience of one of GCC's people, who has been looking for office space in Gungahlin for their business and staff.

Alas, the few sites available in or near the town centre are actually more expensive than the equivalent in Civic!

We hope that once the new Territory Plan is gazetted, the town centre master plan review can be completed quickly, and the new C2 zoned land at the top end of Hibberson Strret can be brought to market - before many more opportunities are lost.

If you live on Anthony Rolfe Drive and like the overall design of that key Gungahlin entry, then our apologies - you're not going to like some of the following. But the simple fact is that many Gungahlin - nah, many Canberra residents - cringe whenever they drive down Anthony Rolfe. They see the unbroken tunnel of unattractive townhouses as a blight on Gungahlin, and a 'shining example' of some of the woeful planning outcomes with which Gungahlin has been saddled.

ACTPLA planners asked to come to our November meeting to present their master plan for the key stretch of Flemington Road - probably the major entry into Gungahlin. When what they showed us was another bl@#*y townhouse tunnel, you can bet we were crystal clear about our thoughts...

So when the approved version of the Flemington Road Concept Plan was posted to us recently - showing our concerns had been totally ignored - guess you could say we were not too happy.

We've attempted to resolve this direct with ACTPLA, as you'll read below, but we don't seem to be getting anywhere, so it's time to take this problem public...

Read more: Flemington Road to be townhouse tunnel

Give them an inch and they'll take a skyscraper...

Well not according to ACT Planning Minister Andrew Barr. He has responded to our concerns about them removing height limits altogether for Commercial zoned land in the Gungahlin town centre. His unedited response follows.

Unfortunately it does not include a guarantee to put finite height limits back into the new Territory Plan. Instead, they are relying on assessing "against criteria such as whether it fits with the other developments in the area, and whether there would be overshadowing - among others."

Planners know what that means, we at GCC have a reasonable idea because we deal with this sort of thing regularly, but for the wider community, this represents a whole bunch of subjective uncertainty.

Our belief is that residents require a degree of certainty with planning in their communities. The way to remove doubt as to subjective assessments is to lock in defined numbers and limits. The previous Territory Plan had defined limits, the draft new Plan had them, and our submission supported increasing those defined limited a certain extent to make investment in local employment viable. Why the shift to complete removal?

Then there is the issue of the complete lack of up-front communication on this issue from ACTPLA. We've enjoyed an improving relationship with ACTPLA and the Minister over the last two years, but the information vacuum on this issue (and the treatment of the Flemington Road Concept Plan) has eroded a great deal of that trust.

Read more: Building heights: Minister responds

Recently the Sydney Morning Herald ran a major feature on planning cities to make them people-friendly, more kid-friendly, less car-dominated.

The sentiment applies just as much to Canberra and in particular to Gungahlin. We have the wonderfully smart design (not!) of an unfenced playground in a little park surrounded by streets on all four sides, and our major commuter route Flemington Road funnelled directly into the town centre...



Danish architect Jan Gehl explains his ideas for a more user-friendly city:

Read more: Planning cities for people not cars

At the latest land ballot run by the ACT's development arm the Land Development Agency, some 900 families were registered - but there were only 156 blocks available!

That's a lot of people - families - who missed out.

The next ballot is in May for 288 blocks at Bridgewater - Franklin. So there will be a whole heap of people missing out yet again.

This is despite the ACT Chief Minister Jon Stanhope's claim on 24 January that some 2850 blocks have "been released".

Of course this isn't new...

Read more: 750 families miss out on land ballot

On 6 March 2008, the ACT Government passed a planning legislation amendment that in part removed height limits from commercial land in the Gungahlin Town Centre. Our responses to media enquiries were based on the Planning Minister's media release, which referred to "lifting" height limits. Only afterwards did it become clear that this was intended to mean "remove", rather than "increase".

The executive of the Gungahlin Community Council wish to make it known that at no time has it advocated the total removal of building height restrictions for new developments within the Gungahlin Town Centre to either the ACT Minister for Planning, his office or the ACT Planning and Land Authority. The spectre of ugly, imposing skyscrapers like Woden's Sky Plaza is something we would never endorse for Gungahlin.

To the contrary, GCC has actively and consistently lobbied both the Planning Minister, his office and ACTPLA for an increase in the allowable heights for new development in the (revised) Commercial Core (C1) and Business (C2) zones of the town centre to be no more than a maximum of eight stories, with appropriate transitioning of the building height to be sympathetic with surrounding residential development.

The requests to increase in permissible building heights to a maximum of eight stories is intended to ensure effective use of remaining scarce land resources and to permit the establishment of larger office developments that would attract major prospective employers.

To quote from GCC's formal submision on the revised Draft Territory Plan:

Read more: Gungahlin height limits clarification

Canberra has a problem with housing affordability and availability, and it is hurting Canberra.

Economics editor for the Canberra Times, Peter Martin and ACT Chief Minister Jon Stanhope are having an ongoing debate through the newspaper as to whether housing prices and lack of supply are stalling the ACT economy. The latest statistics seem to be backing Peter Martin.

Martin kicked off the debate on 22 January with this article:-

Read more: Housing and the stalled ACT economy

Some areas of Gungahlin have experienced 9% increases in value over the last year, and it doesn't look like letting up for a while yet, according to ACT Valuer Herron Todd White:

Construction is underway for the "village centre" of Forde, with construction due to finish in mid-2009.

It will include a shopping centre, six small offices, primary school, childcare and indoor recreation centre.