Page 4533 - Week 15 - Tuesday, 14 December 1993
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Earlier, in discussing the public consultation process, ACTIG stated:
From the October 1992 Community Collaborative Workshop, and the September 1993 Focus seminars, the planning authorities must now recognise and accept that the Canberra community is wholly against the planning and design concept which would urbanise the lake foreshore as promoted in the joint NCPA-ACT Planning Authority Draft Discussion Document: "Where the City Meets the Lake".
ACTIG also noted that the structuring of the public consultation process restricted opportunities for exploring some avenues. I quote again:
While the community's preference is for existing buildings on the Acton Peninsula to be recycled for health and cultural uses, the nature of any such adaptation and the range of activities that could be included have not been extensively defined. Unfortunately, opportunities provided by the NCPA for community discussion have not been structured to encourage the formation of a cohesive community vision, from which themes and activities could be defined. Many participants felt the meetings were so tightly structured that expression of individual views was prohibited.
The group also noted the absence of any detailed policy for relocation of health facilities by the ACT Government to Acton, apart from some commitment to place a hospice on the site. The bottom line for this group is the retention of the site for community uses in perpetuity. The four themes the group identifies are health, heritage, arts and recreation. It states in a paper on suggested uses for the Acton-West Basin area:
We strongly support the overwhelming community consensus, which consistently emerged during the consultation process, that there should be no urban housing or commercial development on Acton Peninsula or West Basin.
That is the community view as expressed by two key community groups participating in the current process.
So what is the view of the organisation which has been facilitating the development of the master plan, the National Capital Planning Authority? In the 1992 document "Where the City Meets the Lake" the National Capital Planning Authority and the ACT Planning Authority put forward a view of what could be located on the site. Facilities included up to 1,000 dwelling units, cultural facilities, festival markets, and space for community events, memorials and landmarks, commercial facilities, and university research facilities. There was one small, seemingly obligatory paragraph on the provision of health facilities, and there was mention of how the National Capital Planning Authority would lessen the open space available in the area by reducing it to a paved promenade and a number of pocket parks in among the residential units.
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