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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 12 Hansard (6 December) . . Page.. 3728 ..

MR CORBELL (continuing):

I have moved this motion because of widespread community concern in the Mawson and Phillip areas relating to the government's proposal to release land along the Athllon Drive corridor for residential development. As members would be aware, earlier this year the government announced its intention to release this parcel of land, which is currently designated for residential use. As part of that release process the government outlined a process for community consultation in relation to the proposed development controls.

Since that time there has been a strong groundswell of community opposition to the proposal. There have been over 1,000 signatories to a petition calling on the ACT government to stop the development. Residents have also raised their concerns about the appropriateness of the site for residential development. In particular, residents have drawn to the government's attention the massive destruction following the 1971 and 1972 floods along the Yarralumla Creek area, which is part of the proposed land release site.

Residents have also raised their concern about the process leading to the designation of the land for residential land use, and they have further raised the issue of the appropriate level of medium - density development in Mawson. In particular, Mawson and Phillip residents have pointed out that currently there are over 1,800 medium - density dwellings in the Mawson/Phillip area compared to only 701 standard single dwellings.

Residents are concerned about the loss of what they perceive as valuable recreational space in their suburb, as well as the traffic impacts which would result from the proposed development. To this end, I should point out that the government in its preparation of the development control plans failed to take account of the impact of traffic flows resulting from the proposed development, except on one street. But they did not pay any attention to the impact on Hurley Street of the proposed development and the traffic flows.

Earlier last month the Standing Committee on Planning and Urban Services received a letter from representatives of the Mawson/Phillip residents group relating to a request for the committee to examine the proposed development and release of the land. The group requested the standing committee to hold a public hearing on the matter and to write to the minister, urging the minister not to release the land for development until the committee had had an opportunity to look into the issue.

The committee agreed to this request and wrote to the minister on 20 November. There had been no reply from the minister until we saw an article in the Southside Chronicle about a fortnight ago. There, the minister rejected the call for further investigation of the release of the site. The minister accused me of scaremongering and being irresponsible, and said that the land had been already consulted on when it was rezoned residential in 1993. The minister rejected the suggestion for a further investigation of the issue. That is what led me to propose the motion that we are debating this morning.

This morning I received from the secretary of the Planning and Urban Services Committee a letter dated yesterday from Mr Smyth, the minister, advising that he would now agree to the committee's requests. I am very pleased that the minister has done so. I think it is important that we as representatives in this place respond to the concerns of people in the community on planning and development issues.

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