Page 1350 - Week 05 - Tuesday, 10 May 1994
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The whole point of the proposed guidelines is to protect and preserve the existing special features of the historic areas, especially their treescape. To this end, detailed landscaping surveys and plans will be required for redevelopment proposals, which will be required to be designed to minimise the visual impact as seen from the street. The committee has been urging the Planning Authority for some time to toughen up on measures to preserve the natural environment. Members of the committee are delighted that the authority has prepared a practice note for any work in verges that affects street trees. This will require proponents of the new development to conform to the requirements of the City Parks section to ensure that verge works have minimal impact on street trees. This requirement will apply to ACT Government authorities as much as to private developers. I acknowledge that we may still have a problem with those public authorities outside the ACT's direct control, such as the gas company and Telecom, but I hope that these bodies too will finally get the message that the people of the ACT want to preserve their existing landscape and that careless digging activity will not do.
By way of information, I learnt what can happen to a tree if a basement is dug nearby and there is a little pump working in the basement making sure that no water gets in, pumping it out into the stormwater system or wherever it goes. What happens is that the water table lowers and, if this happens simultaneously with, say, an increase in temperature outside, then the tree can go into shock and subsequently die. There is no point in a range of authorities doing a lot of work on a site to preserve a particular tree and then another authority who does not care much about the tree coming along and boring a great hole in it or something like that. The issue of looking after these trees is something that we have to deal with fairly carefully because they are a very important part of our natural heritage.
One of the principal means of preserving the integrity of the historic areas is the plot ratio performance measure of 35 per cent maximum. The committee endorses this requirement because it should facilitate the objective of ensuring that the built form does not dominate the landscape of the area. I commend the report to members.
MS SZUTY (3.28): Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, as Mr Berry has outlined, the Planning, Development and Infrastructure Committee has already presented two reports to the Minister for the Environment, Land and Planning, Mr Wood, regarding guidelines - the first report with reference to the B1 area along Northbourne Avenue, and the second report with reference to the B2 area of Kingston. This report has been finalised with reference to the guidelines as they would apply to the historic areas of Forrest, Red Hill, Deakin and Griffith, excluding the area known as Old Red Hill. The committee believes that we need additional time to examine the particular features of the Old Red Hill area, with specific reference to Professor Ken Taylor's study and a forthcoming report from the Heritage Council, which we expect to have by the end of July this year. In the meantime, the committee felt that we could proceed with finalising guidelines for the remaining areas and preparing a report for the Minister.
However, I must own up to feeling not quite satisfied with the guidelines as they have been presented to the Assembly. Although the committee endorsed the proposed guidelines at our meeting a couple of weeks ago, I had intended to suggest additions to them in the light of the extensive amendments the committee recommended in relation to the B1 and B2 areas. I would have preferred to see some commentary in the guidelines, including similar comments to those included in the committee's earlier reports.
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