News - Planning & development

In November, ACTPLA gave public notice of a development application lodged by the Land Development Authority - the ACT Government's semi-commercialised development business unit charged with developing, among other areas, most of Gungahlin.

However, the public notice was the first the Gungahlin Community Council had heard of the intended development, despite having recently attempted to engage with the LDA over upcoming development in the area, and a long history of lobbying for a purpose-built "town square" in this location.

The development is to do extensive landscaping works 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.

But our first opportunity to consider and comment on the proposal was via the public notice process. The submission the GCC lodged is attached. The park's key location in Gungahlin makes it of great importance to the community - not least because, due to an amazing lack of foresight, the park and the whole town are cut in half by a road that is forced to carry almost all of the Gungahlin through traffic - more often than not at a crawl.

The key points of our submission DA Submission - Gungahlin Town Centre Park were:

• need to increase the greenspace as opposed to hardstand areas (we won't be in drought for ever hopefully), particularly around the playground
• need to consult with the community on the playground design and equipment
• need to ensure the playground and significant surrounding area is fenced off to prevent children straying onto the surrounding streets
• need to erect shade devices over the playground as the trees as shown would not shade the playground during the hotter parts of the day and anyway would take years to provide any meaningful shade.

We received a reply from ACTPLA last week advising that the DA had been approved with conditions. As the reply was snail mail I've had to scan it all in, and the pages are attached here: Town Centre Park DA Response.

In essence, the response says 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 I think we've had a bit of a win. We are yet to hear from the LDA, so we won't get too excited yet.

But the "take home message" from this is that there is now a community of some 30,000 people living in Gungahlin. Significant things that happen here now should be done with the will and the input of our community behind them. We are not content to just accept what some planner, developer or designer thinks is best for us.

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