Page 1422 - Week 05 - Wednesday, 10 April 2013
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But what do we need? How do we connect with one another? How do we build on the natural beauty, the landscape and the bones of the past? These are all things that we know Canberrans hold very dear to them. How do we make our city centre better, more active? How do we enrich our lives and our community by making our city centre more liveable, more accessible and a better place to do business in, to work in and to visit?
The new plan will shape the way we live, work and enjoy the city into the future. The city’s broad place is defined within the national capital plan and the territory plan. There is no detailed plan that provides a cohesive direction for the development of the city centre. The city plan will provide a spatial and policy framework for the whole city centre, to 2030 and beyond. Funding to support the development of this plan comes from the Australian government’s liveable cities grant. The plan will be a blueprint for future infrastructure development and land release and an incentive for redevelopment right across the city. It will guide our decision making on what facilities and infrastructure are needed, where these should be located and what should be the appropriate mix of land use.
As I said yesterday, there are opportunities for the community to make comment on the city plan. The first of these is currently underway, with comments invited on a series of discussion papers. The second will be in June, when the draft city plan is released for comment. Again, as I have urged since the launch of the discussion paper and the specific project of city to the lake, we are encouraging Canberrans to get involved in shaping the future of the city—to comment online or come along to one of the open house sessions in Garema Place. There will be planners there for people to talk to, maps will be available for review and there will be opportunity to make comment either individually or as part of a number of discussion groups.
If we look at the city to the lake project, it again provides a development framework for an urban extension of the city centre towards the lake, with a new public waterfront which would unite Commonwealth Park and City Hill with enhanced public access. There will be boardwalks linking the entire waterfront, with an urban beach, cafes and restaurants. These are the ideas that we have put forward. It also preserves the elements that we all currently enjoy—places to picnic, sailing boats, canoes and bike hire. Parkes Way would be reworked as part of this plan so that the central parklands surrounding the lake can have a grand new frontage. There would be enhanced pedestrian access, more facilities around the lake and transport links between the city and the various parts of the lake.
I think anyone who has taken part in some of the celebrations of the Canberra centenary can acknowledge that Canberrans love Lake Burley Griffin. They will come to the lake. They will be drawn to the lake as a place of recreation and fun. I think anyone who goes down there at the weekend, whether you ride your bike, take the kids or go for a jog, knows that more and more the lake is becoming a place people are attracted to as a place for recreation and entertainment.
There is acknowledgement that the side of the lake that goes from the paddle boats up to the National Museum has not kept pace with the improvements on the other side of
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