Page 251 - Week 01 - Wednesday, 15 February 2012
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identifies opportunities for new investment in Tuggeranong, new housing, improvements to the public realm, improving access to the centre and, importantly, achieving a more vibrant Tuggeranong town centre. All of these are priorities for the community, and the government is responding to these in the planning process.
The government, in taking the decision to undertake the Tuggeranong master plan, has also recognised the priority that needs to be accorded for the impact on the Erindale and the Kambah group centres. I thank Ms Bresnan for her acknowledgement of the fact that there is now a large range of planning activity occurring in the Tuggeranong town centre. These draft plans are being prepared concurrently with the Tuggeranong town centre master plan. This has meant that the impacts of new development, of introducing, for example, additional retail space and of implementing transport changes, are being considered simultaneously to ensure that the benefits to the Tuggeranong district are optimised.
I can advise that this coordination in the planning of these centres has led to key recommendations about the extent of development that is appropriate in each. That has ensured a testing of capacity in each of the centres, identifying potential impacts on the amenity and convenience of the smaller centres in particular. As I stated earlier, the government is giving priority to planning at all scales. Not only is the government preparing these concurrent master plans but it is also reviewing and revising the first strategic plan prepared for the territory.
Late last year I was pleased to release the draft ACT planning strategy, a document that sought to explore with the community how best to deliver the community vision of Canberra as a sustainable and prosperous city, and it incorporated the feedback from that gleaned through this government’s innovative time to talk Canberra 2030 consultations. That consultation exercise, which I saw today as I was reading the document again, attracted over 20,000 visits through its online presence and over 34,000 individual comments from Canberrans about what they hope for the future of their city.
Public comment on the draft ACT planning strategy closed this past Monday. The government has received over 70 written submissions as well as numerous online comments and documented feedback from the stakeholder and focus group meetings. I raise this issue simply to demonstrate that it is this Labor government that understands that it is the broader strategic context that is required to address issues such as industrial land at Hume and the importance of tourism in areas such as Tharwa, not just for the Tuggeranong valley but for all of the ACT.
Only by taking this type of broader perspective can government ensure that it coordinates the planning and delivery of: land for commercial, industrial and residential development; better public transport and road infrastructure upgrades that will address the cost to the community of congestion and the personal costs associated with commuting; targeted policies and management strategies that will protect our beautiful biodiversity and the highly valued rural setting around our city; and action taken with our regional neighbours to support and build a prosperous region—a region that can offer many unique rural and natural tourism experiences, including the very important village that is Tharwa.
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