Page 733 - Week 03 - Thursday, 2 April 2020
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The response read as follows:
Dear Mr Duncan
Thank you for your letter of 26 December 2019 regarding petition No 28-19 lodged by Ms Bec Cody MLA regarding parking and pedestrian safety at the Chifley Place precinct.
Transport Canberra and City Services (TCCS) manages 90 shopping precinct areas across the ACT, which includes 66 local shopping precinct areas, 19 group centres, four town centres and Civic. Canberra was designed so that people could visit their local shops for essential items and access Group Centres and Town Centres for a wider range of shops and services. The ACT Territory Plan provides for Commercial Zone CZ4 – Local Centre Zone. It is important to recognise that the objectives of this type of zone are different to the those for Town or Group centres.
As Ms Cody has mentioned, the popularity of the local Chifley Place precinct is also driven by quality community infrastructure, which includes a central community play-space that is near the local Chifley shops. This central play-space is well positioned to serve the whole suburb. District play-spaces, such as those provided in Town or District parks are designed to serve well beyond a single suburb and cater for people travelling from a wide catchment area across the ACT.
The ACT Government recognises the important role that local centres perform for their local communities across Canberra and I am pleased to hear that the Chifley local neighbourhood shopping precinct is a busy and vibrant centre.
Various residents, community groups, and trade owners at Chifley Shops have been in contact with TCCS officers and discussed the increased demand for parking and traffic safety around the Chifley Place precinct. The parking spaces that support the local shops have also been identified to be frequently used by commuters who use the carparks as they include all-day free parking. Providing shorter duration parking would likely improve the availability of parking for those using the local shops.
Interim parking improvements have been presented to the Chifley trading community and Ms Taryn Langdon by TCCS officers in September 2019. These improvements include additional onroad parking along Eggleston Crescent, parking restrictions and line marking. TCCS engaged a contractor to undertake the minor works that were agreed by the community with completion anticipated to be before the end of June 2020.
The proposal for additional parking to support this local shopping precinct, as identified by the local community is subject to consideration as part of the ACT Budget process. If funded, it is anticipated that public consultation would occur prior to construction as part of the design planning phase of the project. This is to ensure aspects such as the location and design layout of the project meets the expectations of the community.
Thank you for raising this matter. I trust this information is of assistance.
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