Page 2651 - Week 08 - Thursday, 24 August 2006
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sustainable transport plan were adopted in March and April 2004 respectively. This marked the end of a 2½-year process of research, consultation and development of a strategic direction for the sustainable future of the ACT.
I am pleased to report that both plans have received broad support from the Canberra community, businesses and industries and accolades from various local and national bodies. In 2004, both plans received awards for planning excellence by the ACT chapter of the Planning Institute of Australia under the categories of community-based planning and sustainable planning. The Canberra spatial plan also received a national certificate of merit from the Institute for Urban Planning Achievement. In addition, both plans have received commendations through the Keep Australia Beautiful awards for promoting sustainability.
The implementation process for both plans is now entrenched in the work of the ACT Planning and Land Authority and, indirectly, other government agencies. Monitoring has also been established to track those initiatives being implemented against the plans’ goals and objectives. Whilst the plans have been in place for only two years, much has already been done to progress implementation of many of the key recommendations of the plans.
This is the first of the biennial reviews of the plans foreshadowed in the spatial plan to track progress. There will also be a major review every five years to ensure the continuing relevance of the plans’ policy proposals, actions, indicators and implementation strategy. Today, I highlight the substantial role these plans have had in directing the territory’s investment for the future.
Central to both plans is the concept of sustainability, and the core theme is to facilitate the development of a more compact city, one which reduces our per capita ecological footprint through reduced land take and travel demands. The plans identify and advocate opportunities for urban intensification and renewal in targeted areas such as our town centres and along transport corridors and seek to ensure that such locations are well served by public transport. The plans also work together to encourage the other more sustainable transport modes of walking and cycling.
While intensification is a critical goal, the plans recognise that there will continue to be demand for greenfield development but advocate that, if greenfield development is to occur, then it should be done as sustainably as possible. On this basis, the development of the Molonglo Valley as a new greenfield area was a key recommendation of the spatial plan.
Whilst some important woodland and grassland communities remain in the valley and parts of the valley are home to birds of prey and rare legless lizards, much of the valley is highly degraded through agricultural activities and the former softwood pine plantations. This substantial habitat modification, the valley’s highly accessible location, being close to Belconnen, Woden, Weston Creek and the city, and its access to infrastructure and services mean that the Molonglo Valley provides a fantastic opportunity for a more sustainable urban settlement pattern for the territory, rather than allowing the city to sprawl further and further away from its centre to the north, west or south. By the use of contemporary planning and environmental practices it also provides an opportunity to
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