Page 5304 - Week 13 - Tuesday, 15 November 2011
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In essence, rule 21 is a staging plan and was originally intended to focus redevelopment in RZ4 zones closer to Canberra City. Rule 21 did not anticipate the need for multi-unit housing along the length of the Northbourne Avenue transport corridor or that arising from the success of Dickson as a group centre and a key employment location in its own right. Variation 310 rectifies this.
Variation 310 also implements recommendations 2 and 3 of the committee’s report by removing rule 44 from the inner north precinct code. This rule restricts use on blocks 12 to 21 section 63 and on section 47 Turner. It arose from the neighbourhood planning process for Turner and was introduced in response to concerns about higher density redevelopment in the area. It was based on residents’ stated intentions to redevelop or not. That was in 2003. Since then it has become very clear that some residents’ intentions have changed.
Additionally, the inner north, and Turner in particular, has experienced considerable redevelopment in the intervening period. Turner has, for good reason, become a very successful location for urban intensification. This is because of its proximity to the city, other key employment locations and to Northbourne Avenue as a major transport and public transport corridor. For these reasons Turner and other parts of the inner north were identified in the Canberra spatial plan and the sustainable transport plan as key locations for urban intensification.
The draft planning strategy and draft transport for Canberra policy, both recently released for public comment, reiterate the need for a sustainable settlement pattern.
The intentions of these plans are clear. To create a sustainable city, we need to provide more housing, and a wider choice of housing in a wider variety of locations where more people can access employment, services and facilities and where those people do not have to rely so heavily on the use of private motor vehicles.
This planning is working. The Australian Bureau of Statistics journey to work data for 2001 and 2006 shows that in Turner, where the number of dwellings doubled over the five-year period, the proportion of residents walking, bicycling or using public transport increased from nine per cent to 37 per cent. The increase in walking to work was most pronounced, rising from under three per cent to 24 per cent. This compares to the average usage of public transport, cycling or walking in the whole of the ACT of under 12 per cent. The number of people driving to work from Turner decreased from 66½ per cent in 2001 to 41.3 per cent in 2006.
Variation 310 does not respond only to the standing committee’s recommendations. The variation was publicly notified in May and June this year, and the planning authority received 30 public submissions. Of these, 11 expressed support for all or part of the variation.
Submissions also raised concerns. These related primarily to the impacts of residential redevelopment in the inner north on traffic, parking, safety, streetscape character, solar access and privacy, infrastructure, community issues, vegetation and the quality of building design. The majority of these issues can and are being dealt with through a number of government initiatives.
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