Page 1356 - Week 05 - Tuesday, 9 April 2013

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Planning—city plan

MS BERRY: My question is to the Chief Minister. Chief Minister, you recently announced the city plan and said at the time that it would provide a blueprint for the future infrastructure, development, land release and incentives for redevelopment right across the city. Chief Minister, could you please outline more details about the plan?

MS GALLAGHER: I thank Ms Berry for her question and for her interest in the city plan. As Ms Berry said in her question, we have recently released the draft document to consult over the development of the city plan. This is a piece of work that we are doing in partnership with the Australian government under their liveable cities program and work that we can bring to the table as part of that project.

The planning and consultation process will develop the plan between now and August 2013. It is a requirement of that agreement with the commonwealth that this plan be finalised towards the end of 2013, I believe in October. There are two consultation phases. The first was launched on 26 March, which will develop the draft city plan. The second phase is consultation on that draft, which will close by the end of July. So it is a fairly tight time frame.

The city plan project will deliver a coordinated and cohesive strategic plan that provides the detail to guide future planning, design and development of the city centre. It will provide a mechanism for governments to identify and prioritise development initiatives and make critical decisions for the city centre.

I think all of us would agree that there are probably three issues that we need to manage that are essential as part of this work. One of them is the capacity of existing infrastructure and what infrastructure needs will be required going forward. The second is what level of growth will be appropriate for the city centre in relation to the current land release projections for greater Canberra. That will be an interesting debate, no doubt. The third is what levers and incentives may be developed to encourage commercial and residential development to support an appropriate level of growth for the city.

When completed, the city plan will provide an integrated plan for the city centre and it will guide all development and change in the city centre. It is not starting from scratch. It will build on policies and principles contained already within policy documents such as the planning strategy, transport for Canberra, the city action plan and the Griffin legacy.

MADAM SPEAKER: Supplementary question, Ms Berry.

MS BERRY: Chief Minister, what target areas will be the focus of the plan?

MS GALLAGHER: Given the previous work and feedback from time to talk, there is a good understanding I think of the key issues. These have informed the five theme areas that the city plan is focused around. They are the role of the city—what facilities


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