Page 563 - Week 02 - Thursday, 17 February 2005
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will be primarily within Civic, the Northbourne Avenue corridor, Constitution Avenue, the town centres of Belconnen, Gungahlin and Woden, and around key nodes, including Kingston, Dickson, Barton and Russell.
The principles of the life cycle neighbourhood are being adopted so that housing for the ageing population can be provided in the best locations to meet the diverse needs of the community. This will be particularly relevant within established areas so that people can remain living in their familiar environment, close to existing networks; that is, to enable ageing in place.
Greenfields developments and major redevelopment and urban renewal projects will ensure opportunities for a range of housing to provide for life cycle ageing in place, including housing for families, adaptable housing, older persons’ accommodation, affordable housing for young people and social housing in appropriate locations with high levels of accessibility to services and public transport.
Investigations will ensure that these areas are consistent with sustainable planning principles, including proximity to existing infrastructure, environmental constraints and proximity to services and families. The goal in any redevelopment is to maintain and develop sustainable employment opportunities. To achieve this, there must be higher density residential development and a choice of housing types within the existing urban areas, predominantly in and around the town centres, to provide for people wishing to live close to places of work, education, community services and cultural activities.
In the territory plan we have worked hard to maintain and develop that, giving us a vibrant town centre with a number of new dwellings in or near town centres as a proportion of the ACT dwellings. The committee considered that the retraction of the A10 area specific policy and the introduction of the B12 area specific policy adjacent to Antill Street, near the Dickson group centre, as a reasonable compromise in the application of sustainability processes.
The proposed B12 policy is consistent with the Canberra spatial plan’s aim of intensifying residences near commercial centres and transport routes within a 7.5-kilometre radius of Civic, although the committee feels that this aim had been better met under the A10 policy. When the ACT Planning and Land Authority has implemented the proposed new design guidelines for residential core areas, it is my hope that this will lead to a more accepted necessity for sustainable urban environments, including substantial residential intensification in inner Canberra.
As the committee chair, I thank those who advised us on the variation.
MR SESELJA (Molonglo) (11.41): I welcome the government’s backflip on this matter; I genuinely do. I think it is very welcome. For some time, we have been talking about the A10 policy and the need to scale it back. We certainly opposed it at the time and we continue to oppose it, particularly as currently defined. DV246 is recognition of that. I really do welcome the government’s adoption of the Liberal Party’s policy of scaling back on the A10 policy and of concentrating on the intensification of development around group centres, around town centres and along major transport corridors.
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