Page 973 - Week 03 - Thursday, 10 April 2014
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Planning—Northbourne Avenue redevelopment
MRS JONES: My question is to the Minister for the Environment and Sustainable Development. Minister, on 9 April the Canberra Times reported that the ACT government believed there would be room for at least 45,000 more residents along Northbourne Avenue. Minister, which buildings on Northbourne Avenue does the government plan to sell for redevelopment to house all these extra residents?
MR CORBELL: I thank Mrs Jones for her question. The projection of the 45,000 additional residents is based on the existing zoning controls set out in both the territory plan and the national capital plan between the city, along the Northbourne Avenue corridor and along the Flemington Road corridor, all the way to the Gungahlin town centre. That is what the territory plan effectively makes provision for when you look at how the zoning translates into dwellings and then the expected average occupancy of those dwellings.
The government is yet to make specific decisions about the release of sites for redevelopment that are immediately adjacent to Northbourne Avenue. The government will be undertaking further analysis around those questions as we finalise development of the business case and associated redevelopment proposals for the capital metro project. But it is very important to stress that this is not just driven by the release of government sites. What we know is that the development of the light rail corridor will drive an uplift in the level of investment by the private sector in privately owned land and privately owned property, and that will also significantly contribute to the expected yield that in the long term can be expected to be achieved in the number of dwellings along that corridor.
MADAM SPEAKER: A supplementary question, Mrs Jones.
MRS JONES: Minister, what is the value of the land the government intends to sell for redevelopment?
MR CORBELL: I refer Mrs Jones to my previous answer. The government is undertaking detailed assessments in relation to a range of government-owned sites along the corridor, and obviously a detailed evaluation is part of that process.
MADAM SPEAKER: A supplementary question, Ms Porter.
MS PORTER: Minister, how will the release of these sites along this corridor benefit the city?
MR CORBELL: I thank Ms Porter for her supplementary. It is the case that there will be significant benefits for our city from this redevelopment. As part of the broader planning strategy for our city we need to consolidate development and accommodate population growth without the continuing impacts that we are seeing from a reducing land supply in terms of greenfield estates and, of course, the impacts of greenfield land development on endangered communities and ecosystems. We need to shift away from that model and we need to accommodate more of our population growth in established urban areas. This project has enormous capacity to leverage that shift.
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