Page 3186 - Week 09 - Tuesday, 20 August 2019
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Kingston foreshore and Jerrabomberra wetlands. It also includes additional funding to support the indicative land release program, including undertaking necessary due diligence activities on urban renewal sites.
Within Housing ACT, the budget supports the delivery of a second Common Ground within an integrated urban renewal of section 72 Dickson. This is an important investment in intensive support for people who are experiencing or at risk of homelessness and in providing affordable rental housing for low income Canberrans.
As local members for Kurrajong will be well aware, there has been further conversation about the future of Dickson section 72 over the past couple of years, led by the urban renewal team in EPSDD. In February I wrote to the North Canberra Community Council stating that I consider the next stage of engagement should build on what the community has already told us with near universal agreement, including that section 72 Dickson should contain a mix of uses, including new community facilities, in an integrated precinct that better connects and builds on existing uses and services; be a safe environment, inviting and permeable, with appropriate lighting, passive surveillance and improved connections, especially for pedestrians and cyclists; feature attractive and usable green space, with existing tress retained to the greatest extent possible, increased overall tree canopy and places for children and families; and ensure that development consists primarily, though not necessarily exclusively, of low to medium-rise buildings up to three to four storeys.
I have said that I am open to establishing a community reference group as part of the next stage of engagement but I note that this is on hold while the current holders of block 22 consider whether to surrender this block to the ACT government, as previously expected. In the meantime a community needs assessment has been completed and released, and work is separately progressing on the very important Common Ground project.
The urban renewal team is also managing the demolition of the asbestos-contaminated former Woden High School-CIT site. In the first instance the 5.6 hectare community facility zoned land will be reserved for future community needs as we consider the needs of our changing community and the rapidly developing Woden town centre.
The ACT government will always put the safety of Canberrans first, which is why the demolition of the former CIT site needs to proceed. Any rectification work on the existing buildings would be expensive. This is one reason why the consultants, Donald Cant Watts Corke, who undertook a preliminary business case for the repurposing of CIT Woden campus in 2018, “having considered the individual building reports, as well as the estimated construction cost for the four options of do nothing, repurpose to minimum standard, repurpose to proposed use, or to demolish” recommended that the government demolish the campus and prepare the site for resale. The report found that if the buildings were considered an important territory asset and were to be retained for future use then repurposing of the buildings to market expectations would have an estimated cost of $15.3 million, with an annual maintenance in the order of $728,000. In relation to the proposal to repurpose the buildings for crisis accommodation, DCWC considered:
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