Page 716 - Week 04 - Tuesday, 1 May 2007
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the public consultation stage also reflect more recent submissions from stakeholders to the Planning and Land Authority.
The committee notes that the Canberra spatial plan provides that residential intensification will occur within a 7.5 kilometre radius of the city centre over the next 15 years. It also says that areas within central Canberra, Civic, along Northbourne Avenue, Constitution Avenue, Barton and Kingston, will be targeted for residential intensification but that “policy boundaries are not to be regarded as precise and are intended to inform more detailed planning”.
The committee appreciates that readers of the Canberra spatial plan may be a little confused by the summary statements which suggest that residential intensification is more limited. The Canberra spatial plan does not in any sense displace the territory plan and stakeholders should consult the territory plan as the more authoritative statutory document. The territory plan includes a land use policy for medium and high rise residential development in specified areas, including Kingston, Griffith, Forrest, and the city along the Northbourne Avenue corridor, adjacent to the Belconnen town centre and also in Kaleen.
The urban residential area, B9, and urban housing land use policies, B11, permit a variety of medium and high density housing types of two to three stories close to commercial centres, transport corridors and employment centres. In addition, the territory plan says that A10 residential core land use areas “typically consist of those residential areas within approximately 300 metres of group of town centres or 200 metres from identified local centres”. The A10 residential core land use policy applies throughout Canberra. As noted above, before the A10 policy was introduced, multi-unit development could occur almost anywhere in Canberra. This policy actually reduces the potential for residential intensification to occur in Griffith, Garran, Hackett and Yarralumla. The HIA strongly opposes this policy, arguing that it is reducing the needs of the market to be met.
In March 2007 the ACT Planning and Land Authority released a discussion paper on the evaluation of the garden city provisions of the territory plan, and this can be downloaded from the authority’s website. There is also a broader review of the territory plan under way as part of the planning reform system project. This will not change the policy parameters which are embodied in the territory plan. The committee notes that the A10 residential core land use policy in the territory plan already protects streetscapes.
The objectives for the A10 areas are: to ensure that development respects existing streetscapes and adjoining development, or contributes to the desired future suburban character of the area as defined by an approved master plan; to retain a moderate level of flexibility to accommodate a wider variety of additional housing close to facilities and services to meet changing community needs and preferences; and to assist in creating a more sustainable pattern of urban settlement by providing more housing to be developed close to identified commercial centres. The A10 policy also includes development controls aimed at protecting streetscapes. For example, proposals involving subdivision or consolidation of standard blocks for multi-unit housing must be accompanied by information that demonstrates how the proposed development fits
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