Page 3408 - Week 11 - Wednesday, 18 September 2013
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
Madam Deputy Speaker, this motion is about the future planning and development of our city. This government has a comprehensive strategic planning framework to guide the future pattern and form of development in our city to make our city more sustainable, to make our city more liveable, to make housing more affordable, and to make it easier for people to move around our city without being overly reliant on the private motor vehicle.
These are the challenges that any city’s strategic plan needs to take into account: sustainable population growth, climate change, energy use, liveability. These are the key issues that a planning system must address. The ACT planning strategy came into effect on 1 September last year and it outlines clear directions under nine strategies to deliver five key outcomes. It will guide development across our city over the next 20 years. It will focus on creating and delivering a more compact city that will come from higher densities in established areas and along key transport corridors. This will help to reduce our urban footprint.
It will maximise public and active transport investment and it will provide greater connectivity across the city. It means more intense development in our city centre, like the ABC flats. It means more people living close to where they work, where they shop, where there are cultural, recreational and commercial services. It is a very real and meaningful strategic planning framework to deliver strong outcomes. As I have said, it will deliver higher densities in established areas and more people bringing more activity to areas, creating economic, recreational and cultural opportunities.
It is about broadening the range of housing available for a wider spectrum of the housing market and improving affordability. It is about connecting people easily and simply to services, to facilities, and to recreational opportunities, and it is about putting people in touch with the services, facilities and opportunities they need. It is also about rejuvenating and modernising areas of the city where people want to be and want to live.
The city plan that has been part-funded through the commonwealth government’s living cities program will help to deliver the strategic framework for the detailed future of our city centre and build on our strategic planning framework. It is not proposed that the city plan be a statutory document, but it will help to reinforce the strategic framework and directions for growth and change in the city centre.
It is expected to put in context the kind of developments and proposals that Mr Coe claims are drawing the city in all directions. While the city plan is yet to be finalised, it is expected to set a direction for increased residential growth and density in and around the city centre—growth and redevelopment like the ABC flats in Reid and Braddon; redevelopment like we see in the new Acton precinct; and the development of new commercial facilities in the city centre, such as on London Circuit.
These are the kind of activities that will bring commercial and residential activity into our city centre and allow more people to live close to the city centre. The government has outlined what this growth could mean. It could mean up to a further 5,000 dwellings in the city centre over the next 20 years. It could mean close to another
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video