Page 3281 - Week 10 - Thursday, 19 October 2006
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wants to do it. I believe it is a misconceived approach. I urge the Assembly to reject this variation and for the government to instruct ACTPLA to prepare amendments to it to ensure that local residents are not disadvantaged on the basis of an obsession about encouraging more of the same in the mistaken belief that beer and coffee is simply shorthand for cultural vitality.
MR CORBELL (Molonglo—Attorney-General, Minister for Police and Emergency Services and Minister for Planning) (11.07): The Kingston Group Centre is one of the oldest group centres in Canberra. It was developed in 1924 and serves all inner south Canberra suburbs and other parts of Canberra through its entertainment and leisure services.
Redevelopment in the surrounding Kingston neighbourhood since the early 1970s has resulted in a significant change of dwelling form from single dwellings to multiunit apartment developments. This change in dwelling form has resulted in the formation of a community with changed socioeconomic and demographic characteristics, and this has also affected the business mix of the centre. Draft variation 256 was prepared in direct response to community concerns regarding the potential for the intensity of some activities to have an adverse impact on the surrounding neighbourhood.
It is worth noting that club and drink establishment uses have been permitted in section 22, along Jardine Street, since the introduction of the territory plan in 1993. Until draft variation 256 was released, lessees have had the right to apply for a lease variation to allow these uses since the commencement of the territory plan in that year, 1993. This is not a new provision.
In 2004, I instructed the ACT Planning and Land Authority to prepare a draft variation to create a buffer between potentially conflicting land uses. This has been achieved by changing the policy for the area to precinct B, which is designed to act as a buffer between the retail core in precinct A and the adjoining residential area. This is consistent with the approaches taken at many other local and group centres in Canberra. Precinct B was extended to cover those blocks in section 22 that were previously part of the retail core.
The draft variation sought to address issues arising from Kingston’s transformation over recent years into a group centre with a significant leisure and entertainment focus and the impact that this was having on adjoining residential areas. The major changes proposed in the draft variation are new precinct boundaries that do not allow club, drink establishments, service stations and indoor entertainment facilities in the area abutting the residential areas. That means that you cannot have a nightclub, you cannot have a bar and you cannot have other types of clubs or any sort of indoor entertainment activity facility in that area.
Restaurants continue to be permitted, provided that a noise management plan is prepared. Noise management plans will need to demonstrate compliance with noise standards that apply throughout the ACT through the Environment Protection Act 1997.
The draft variation was released for public comment on 3 March 2005, and a total of 25 written submissions were received. The main concerns raised in those submissions related to noise, opening hours, personal safety and car parking problems. Other
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