Written by Alan Kerlin Wednesday, 04 April 2007 20:00
Had a good PDF meeting tonight, with Minister Corbell in attendance.
I was able to talk with him for about 15 mins prior to the meeting and discussed at length the lack of office space/jobs in Gungahlin.
Also discussed co-locating daycare with the new Harrison school.
In
the meeting the key thing discussed was sustainability and
affordability of housing, and in particular I was able to raise
concerns about new development with poor lot design. I expressed
concern that the bar is too low for current subdivision design, and
that if the policy IS improved, that the concept plans already agreed
to like for Crace and others need to be revisited.
I pointed out that with good orientation, it is easy/inexpensive to design a 5-star house, therefore making sustainability more affordable. I drew on the example of our design for our house, which achieved 5-star just with good layout and window design, with no 'extras' like improved glass. Improving the glass then lifted the rating to 5.5 stars and blinds etc will nuke 6 stars, but I digress...
My points were supported by ACTPLA's Jacqui Lavis, the other community councils AND by the HIA. Simon undertook to have the department give it a serious assessment and report back to the next meeting. He also asked for other related concerns to be passed on to him, so there's some more homework to be done. I'm particularly interested to raise the lack of incentives by the ACT government for people who go beyond the minimum requirements, such as rebates for people who install solar hot water, grey water, bigger rain tanks, etc.
This has opened the door to get a number of other ideas for sustainable and affordable housing onto the agenda. He also committed to getting to more PDF meetings in future.
Other issues
The water sensitive urban design guidelines will be released 24-4-07.
Minister stated the planned land release of 1200-1500 lots has been bumped up to 2000 lots.
They are revising body corporate laws to make apartment living more attractive by removing some of the onerous restrictions that body corporates can impose on owners.
Minister expressed interest in exploring some areas for energy efficiency improvements, with commercial refurbishments a big area, and residential hot water systems also very important.
Pretty happy with that for one night's work...
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