Page 875 - Week 03 - Thursday, 30 March 2006
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The issues raised in the submissions related mainly to height controls, density and scale of the proposed development, traffic and parking, noise, landscaping, heritage issues and community consultation. The ACT Planning and Land Authority has offered the following responses to submissions. A height limit of AHD 599.0 has been imposed to match the ridgeline of the R G Casey Building, also known as the foreign affairs building. An increase in floor area greater than 7,000 square metres over the GFA of the building it replaces will require a preliminary assessment to be undertaken to evaluate the environmental, social and economic impacts of the developments on the site. The community has further opportunity for comment at that time.
The scale of development will vary across the site and the detailed assessment stage will have regard to the scale of adjacent development. Traffic management measures will be introduced in Macquarie Street and Bourke Street to minimise traffic congestion and restrict long-stay parking. It is not expected that traffic generated by the development will be significantly increased compared with traffic levels previously generated by the Macquarie Hotel. A landscape master plan will be required to be submitted with a development application for approval.
The site is not subject to a heritage citation. However, the scale of the development and sympathetic architecture will respect the neighbouring heritage precincts. The proponent has undertaken community consultation in two stages, the first of which was a series of face-to-face individual meetings with residents living adjacent to the site and a community information session. The planning authority has also undertaken extensive consultation on the draft variation. The community will have further opportunities to comment when detailed development applications are brought forward.
The Standing Committee on Planning and Environment made a number of recommendations on this variation. The first recommendation was that the variation should proceed. The second was that the Chief Minister or the Minister for Urban Services ensure that relevant parking policy officers in their respective departments support, in broad terms, the introduction of paid parking and/or other traffic reduction measures in Barton, Parkes and Forrest during consultations and negotiations with the National Capital Authority on this issue and that the ACT government introduces pay parking and/or other traffic reduction measures for those parts of these areas for which it has responsibility.
The Department of Urban Services has advised that the introduction of pay parking and other traffic reduction measures in Barton is supported and that it will continue to work closely with the National Capital Authority, the land manager in Barton, in the development of appropriate parking and traffic strategies.
The committee recommends that the authority encourage the demonstration and promotion of sustainability features for this complex, including the application of water sensitive urban design principles; that the authority encourages the proponent to consider the use of water saving measures and to plant drought tolerant native species on section 27, wherever possible, subject to heritage constraints; that the authority requires that all buildings be constructed to meet the criteria set out in the Australian Standard AS2107, Recommended Design Sound Levels and Reverberation Times for Building Interiors, and Australian Standard 3671, Acoustics—road traffic noise—Building Siting and
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