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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 7 Hansard (26 June) . . Page.. 2195 ..

MS HORODNY (continuing):

However, the second draft of the lease conditions has removed the restriction on the stadium's use at nights, which is contrary to your response to the PER on this proposal, and has reduced the car parking requirements to one car per six spectators, and that is a 50 per cent drop. I understand that the soccer club wants to reduce these conditions even further. Could you explain why these conditions are being relaxed, to the detriment of local residents, given the public controversy that this proposal generated and the extensive work that went into preparing the PER and the setting of development conditions that were meant to minimise the impacts of the development?

MR HUMPHRIES: Mr Speaker, I thank Ms Horodny for the question, and I can confirm to her that she has been misinformed about the lease. The lease has been signed. It was signed on the 24th, which was last Tuesday. I have to say that I think it is a very good thing that it has been signed, because it has been a longstanding issue. The people who will benefit from that development of sporting facilities in Belconnen have waited for a very long time to see that, and I am very pleased that we were finally able to wrap up the arrangements.

The Government has not relaxed the standards which were contained in the PER. Those standards have been maintained. The complex, as members may be aware, will include an enclosed soccer ground, a licensed club and an indoor sports hall developed over a 10-year period at an estimated cost of about $17m. That use is consistent with the Territory Plan. The area has long been zoned for something of that kind. Members will recall that it was subject to a very long and costly process of assessment, that a further assessment was required in the form of a public environment report, and that there was very extensive community consultation, including a round table, about that.

There were negotiations between the club and PALM concerning the extent to which requirements in the PER needed to be met, and at various stages proposals were put forward to move away from the standards being set in the PER. The only extent to which those standards have been modified is by the adjustment in the range of facilities that are foreshadowed by the club at the Belconnen Soccer Club. For example, the arrangements for car parking have been modified but only on the basis that the proposals are not as extensive as those originally foreshadowed in the proposal from the Belconnen Soccer Club. As I recall, it is to do with making sure that facilities of different kinds on the site are not used simultaneously so as to generate a greater need for car parking than would be the case if they were used at different times.

Mr Speaker, I am confident that those standards have been maintained, and that the concerns of the residents have been addressed. I have written to those people recently and explained how that has occurred. I believe, Mr Speaker, that residents will be very happy with the outcome because it does address the concerns that they raised.

MS HORODNY: Mr Humphries, you did not address whether the stadium would be used on Friday and Saturday nights until such time as the noise levels can be properly measured. Can you answer that question?

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