Page 3668 - Week 09 - Tuesday, 23 August 2011
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Planning and Land Authority. I also gave consideration to the representations received by ACTPLA during the public notification period for the DA that occurred in May this year.
I have imposed conditions on the approval of the DA which require, among other things, that appropriate leasing arrangements be put in place to ensure that the future lease of the land will facilitate the new development and the removal of three regulated trees.
The Planning and Development Act provides for specific criteria in relation to the exercise of the call-in power. I have used my call-in powers in this instance because I consider that the proposal will provide a substantial net community benefit to the Canberra community through the significant improvement in the range of retail facilities that will be available, particularly in terms of convenient supermarket retailing in the Giralang area. Further, it provides residents of Giralang with an appropriate range of convenience retail opportunities within walking or cycling distance from their homes.
The use of my call-in powers in this instance will also enable the timely construction of the proposed development by the proponent and will remove a significant area of urban blight in the neighbourhood.
Section 161(2) of the Planning and Development Act specifies that, if I decide an application, I must table a statement in the Assembly not later than three sitting days after the day of the decision, and I have therefore tabled this statement.
MS LE COUTEUR (Molonglo), by leave: I have three points that I want to make about this. First, the Greens are pleased that Giralang will finally have local shops again. It is disgraceful that it is taking so long to get the normal facilities of most suburbs that have local shops. So I want to make it very clear that we certainly believe Giralang deserves to have a decent shopping centre.
But this is not just about what happens in Giralang. There is a wider issue, and there are two points that I would like to be considered. Giralang previously had local shops, but it might be that, after this, in effect what Giralang is getting is a group centre. My understanding is that while the supermarket itself is 1,500 square metres, if you included the loading zone, the storage area and the adjacent shop, which is expected to have the same owner, I have been told this would be an area of greater than 2,000Â square metres, which is a lot bigger than is normally allowed in a local shopping centre.
I also understand that the entire development will be greater than 5,000 square metres, which again is substantially bigger than most local shopping centres and is getting more in the scale of a group centre. So the fact that this appears to be a considerably bigger development than a normal local centre brings up two important issues. Firstly, there is the issue of traffic. The roads in Giralang were designed for a local shopping centre. They were not designed for a group centre. One of the issues that I know some Giralang residents have had is the traffic impact on their suburb and whether it will be positive.
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