News - Planning & development

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.

Sure - there are parts of Gungahlin that are quite nice - quite livable. But an exemplar of modern planning it ain't.

It's not that there is a denser population that that is the problem - it's the way it has been done, and the spin -off problems that result from that. What is it with these townhouses? Does the LDA not understand how to do apartment complexes? Apart from three DHCS community housing projects, there isn't a single Kingston-style apartment complex built for all of Gungahlin, and nothing planned around the town centre at all? This flies in the face of good planning principles that require medium density along major public transport routes or near employment sinks.

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