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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 2 Hansard (26 February) . . Page.. 426 ..

MR MOORE (10.32): Mr Speaker, I present the Territory Plan Variation Bill 1997.

Title read by Clerk.

MR MOORE: I move:

That this Bill be agreed to in principle.

Mr Speaker, this Bill no doubt will become known as the Bill to abolish the Canberra B1 zone. I think it will be particularly interesting to people who live in North Canberra. As all members would know, the Territory Plan is a document that was enacted under the authority of two Acts, the Commonwealth's Australian Capital Territory (Planning and Land Management) Act 1988 and the Territory's own Land (Planning and Environment) Act 1992. The plan contains several land use classifications. The largest, of course, is residential land. In the plain residential zone, multistorey unit developments are not permitted. However, an area specific policy known as B1 allows three-storey unit development in specified areas.

Mr Speaker, these three-storey policies are effectively five-storey policies. We have seen that where they have been developed in places such as Torrens Street in Braddon, where there is a basement and an attic, and that basement can be well above ground level. The effect is that five-storey buildings can be built right next to ordinary residential homes. Large parts of Braddon, Turner, O'Connor, Lyneham and Dickson have been specified as B1 zones. As a result, we have seen several large unit developments appear in Braddon already.

This blanket B1 designation of large areas has been condemned by local residents. Making it possible for developers to obtain development approval on any block in any street empowers developers, whose objective is financial profit, to make Canberra's planning decisions. Mr Speaker, I have no problem about people's objective being profit, but I do have a problem about that being the only part of the consideration that leads to the final conclusion. What we have is a system that is not a system of planning at all; it is simply a system based on a free market. That is the antithesis of the design of Canberra.

The one avenue residents have remaining to them is to make objections based on design and siting and similar issues. It was pleasing to see a few weeks ago that two particularly objectionable developments on isolated blocks in Braddon had their approvals overturned on these grounds. Unfortunately, those were the last decisions of the now abolished Land and Planning Appeals Board. It seems that residents have now lost such accessible appeal rights. The Government, Mr Speaker, is to be condemned on that move, which was supported by the Labor Party in this Assembly. I will not go into that any further, Mr Speaker, because it certainly would be beyond me to reflect on a vote of the Assembly.

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