Written by Alan Kerlin - GCC President Tuesday, 06 February 2007 10:00
In November 2006, ACTPLA gave public notice of a development application lodged by the Land Development Authority.
The development is to do landscaping works worth $2.5M in the linear strip between "The G" and the Big W buildings and to demolish the existing playground and redo all the works in that strip right down to the Community Centre and library.
There seemed a lot good about the plans and clearly a lot of money is going to be spent by the LDA on the park.
However, the public notice was the first the Gungahlin Community Council had heard of the intended development, despite having a long history of lobbying for a purpose-built "town square" in this location, leaving us to lodge a DA submission as our only way to lodge comment on the plans.
The DA was approved, but includes requirements that:- the LDA meet with the GCC and other stakeholders to discuss the plans "at the earliest possible opportunity"
- the design is revised to show detailed description of the playground, more "visual and textural interest in the planting and pavement", and "sufficient shade and spatial enclosure for year round amenity from the proposed vegetation or (subsequent) structures".
So we had a bit of a win - we thought. We are yet to hear from the LDA, other than the claim made in this article from the Chronicle that they had consulted with us about the park design - which is absolutely not true.
Meanwhile we started surveying residents about their thoughts for the park design, and the strong response led us to conclude that the time was right to re-run our full community survey via our website and the next edition of Gunsmoke.
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