Page 4457 - Week 14 - Thursday, 1 December 1994
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The Government has also released draft guidelines which spell out very clearly the conditions under which dual occupancies will now be permitted. In addition, the Government has decided that, where an applicant for a dual occupancy wishes to unit title the two dwellings, betterment at the rate of 100 per cent will be payable. I hasten to explain that, if an applicant wishes to build a dual occupancy on their block and not unit title the two dwellings, no betterment will be levied.
The Government has also addressed the recommendations with regard to multi-unit developments. Such developments will not be allowed for the first five years in developing areas, except where they are in approved implementation plans. It will be allowed only where at least two blocks are amalgamated or on single blocks at least 50 per cent larger than adjoining blocks. It will be limited to one unit per 350 square metres, up to a maximum of four per existing block for developments of under 4,000 square metres and one per 1,000 square metres for larger blocks. It will be restricted to single-storey unless next to two-storey, and must be designed to reflect the existing character of the streetscape. I have also introduced new requirements for preconsultation by proponents for new developments and for the form and content of development applications.
The other concern that was addressed by Mr Lansdown was the redevelopment of blocks in established areas for several units. This recommendation has been addressed, among other things, by the Government through its announcement that it will be introducing local area planning. In my press release I said that the first plans would be developed for Yarralumla, Griffith, Turner and Ainslie and that I would suspend the three-storey development option for the B area north of Wakefield Avenue and west of Northbourne Avenue. I said that nothing would proceed in that B1 area until local area plans had been prepared in consultation with local communities. The Department of the Environment, Land and Planning, together with ACT Housing, is at present developing arrangements for the preparation of these plans with the local community. I acknowledge that there are a number of key issues to be dealt with.
I have also foreshadowed the second stage of our consultation exercise in planning - the Liveable Canberra strategic study. This will be the big picture. Lansdown has given us an answer for the residential precincts and the tools to develop and entrench a sense of place where it matters most - in our neighbourhoods - but we still need the big picture, a vision of where we are all going together as a city and not just in our own suburb. The strategic urban design study will give us that. I will be announcing arrangements for that shortly. Madam Speaker, the Government believes that the Lansdown report has provided a firm basis for further development of the Territory's planning system.
MR CORNWELL (3.49): I would like to begin by referring the Assembly to a report on urban consolidation dated October 1993. My friend Mr Stefaniak will be interested to know that it was by an organisation called Masterplan Consultants of Sydney. At page 9 it makes an interesting reference to dual occupancy when it states:
Demand for this type of development is likely to be generally uniform throughout all areas of Canberra. This prediction is based on the following reasons.
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