Page 2015 - Week 06 - Wednesday, 6 May 2009
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The Greens are very supportive of the proposal to redevelop the Giralang shops. This is a suburb which is busy and active. It has a school, it has a service station, and it is quite reasonable that the locals want to have shops as well. However, it is unclear whether or not they want their local shops turned into a group centre. If the current development proposal was approved, it would, in effect, allow the shops to be upgraded from a local shopping centre to a group centre, as it would become three times larger.
Giralang has had no functional shopping centre for several years now, and the owners have consistently claimed that it can not possibly support even the current size shopping complex. However, we know of a few small retailers, including the supermarket, who would be very happy to establish a new shop there. My colleague Ms Hunter will talk more about that.
Local residents have had a range of concerns about the possible upgrading of their local centre to a larger group centre. Given the proximity to Giralang school and the fact that the local roads were not designed for a group centre, residents have been raising concerns about the safety of students, teachers and parents. Looking at the rest of Belconnen, we know that a supermarket three times larger than what was there previously will need to attract residents from outside Giralang.
If this development proposal is approved, it is likely that two or three smaller suburbs in the surrounding suburbs of Belconnen will become unviable and will end up closing. Thus, the local shops that they are the anchor tenant for will end up closing. We do not want to see a shopping centre at Giralang at the expense of shopping centres elsewhere in Belconnen.
My understanding is that a normal local centre could be delivered in Giralang and that result would be a win-win for the residents of Giralang and the surrounding suburbs and the small business operators. It would also mean that the businesses that invested heavily based on the retail hierarchy in the territory plan would continue to have confidence.
One of the things that this discussion highlights is some issues with the DA process. ACTPLA has no discretion. If an application is consistent with the territory plan, then it must be approved. So while people can comment on a DA, if it is consistent, then the only person who has any discretion is the minister. It is essential, but unfortunately probably impossible, that the territory plan covers all eventualities.
Another issue with the DA process is that normally only the immediate neighbours are notified. While this may be reasonable for residential developments, in a case like this which affects not only Giralang but also neighbouring suburbs, it is important that all affected people are notified so they have a chance to comment.
Given the importance of the territory plan, I call on the government to commit to maintaining the current retail hierarchy of local group and town centres throughout the territory plan and, through it, in the ACT. The territory plan has guidelines which relate to local group and town centres but these are performance-based statements
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