Page 1674 - Week 06 - Wednesday, 8 May 2013
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MR CORBELL (Molonglo—Attorney-General, Minister for Police and Emergency Services, Minister for Workplace Safety and Industrial Relations and Minister for the Environment and Sustainable Development) (10.10): After extensive public consultation and an inquiry by the Standing Committee on Planning, Public Works and Territory and Municipal Services, I approved variation 306 on 22 February this year. I presented it to the Assembly on 26 February.
We now have before us a motion seeking to reject this variation in its entirety. To reject this variation would be to reject effective and workable solar performance policies that would ensure that residential blocks were properly configured and limit the overshadowing of their neighbours; to reject provisions to protect the neighbourhood character of RZ2 zones, while allowing for multi-unit housing redevelopment in these core areas, which has been a significant cause of concern for many residents; to reject the prospect of providing accommodation in a small, secondary residence associated with a single house, which so many Canberrans are asking for; to reject new rules for residential estates that will ensure improved solar performance for residential subdivisions, meaning people moving into new homes have to pay less for their heating and their cooling; to reject clearer provisions for estate development in the ACT.
Variation 306 was prepared as part of a review of the territory plan. Following the introduction of the restructured territory plan in 2008, the policy content was reviewed and updated as a result of a range of changing economic, social and environmental circumstances. This review related to all forms of development in residential zones and for the subdivision of land.
Variation 306 introduces amended residential objectives, development tables and codes, an amended estate development code and a new lease variation general code. The variation incorporates some significant policy changes as well as many refinements to current residential policies. Rejecting variation 306 will set aside all of these improvements and will be a setback to good planning policy.
The residential zones objectives have been revised to better differentiate between zones, to more fully describe the desired character of urban development in each zone and to recognise and underpin the critical importance of good solar access. The residential zones development tables have been refined to expand the list of development under the code track and to amend the terms in the merit track.
The proposed residential zones development code is the overarching code for all development in residential zones. It contains provisions transferred from other codes, in particular part D of the current residential zones multi-unit housing development code, with minor adjustments to clarify policy intent. It includes provisions for demolition and block subdivision as well as introducing a provision for limiting block consolidation for RZ2 residential redevelopment. This is an issue of significant concern to residents in existing suburban areas.
The new residential zones code also introduces secondary residences to replace the current relocatable units and habitable suites. This is highly anticipated policy that
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