Page 1910 - Week 07 - Thursday, 23 August 2007
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The government will not be supporting the disallowance motion. As Dr Foskey has outlined, draft variation No 259 to the territory plan proposes to change the land use policies and precinct boundaries for the Woden town centre in accordance with the recommendations contained in the Woden town centre master plan. The draft variation also proposes to delete the existing plot ratio controls for precinct (c) for all town centres. The variation was released for public comment in August 2005 and attracted 12 written comments. Minor revisions to the exhibited draft variation in response to public submissions and refining of land use controls were made.
The Standing Committee on Planning and Environment, in its report released in October 2006, made 10 recommendations in relation to the draft variation, among which was a recommendation that the government proceed with its implementation. The government considered the issues raised, and a government response providing a detailed response to the committee’s recommendations was prepared. The committee recommended that the variation to the territory plan proceed subject to recommendations contained within its report.
This draft variation has resulted from extensive consultation work undertaken with the development of the Woden town centre master plan and has itself been subject to a further round of public consultation and review by the Assembly’s planning and environment committee. Dr Foskey has an issue, seemingly, because neither the planning and environment committee’s recommendations nor the final version of the variation have been the subject of public consultation.
But the planning and environment committee’s report is not a secret document. It is a publicly available report by a committee of democratically elected members of this Assembly about a document that has already been the subject of substantial consultation. The committee conducted its own inquiry into the proposed changes contained in DV 259 and the Woden Valley Community Council responded to the planning and environment committee’s call for submissions and provided written comment.
I am sure that, in the preparation of the recommendations that were contained within the committee’s report, the planning and environment committee would have taken due account of the concerns and issues raised in the Woden Valley Community Council’s submission. The view that the Woden community council, the Woden public, are not aware that the entire leisure and recreation precinct north of Launceston Street is to become commercial, with the exception of the Phillip oval area, simply cannot be sustained. Except for the Phillip pool site, this change was one of the major elements of the original draft variation that was subject to significant public consultation.
The subsequent proposal to include the pool site in the precinct was in response to the committee’s report. The committee concluded that it was essential to retain and refurbish the Phillip pool and ice-skating rink to provide ongoing public access to the facilities and recommended that including the site in the commercial precinct with specific provisions relating to the retention of both the pool and the ice-skating rink was the best way of facilitating this outcome.
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