Page 4510 - Week 13 - Tuesday, 26 November 2019
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The ACT Territory Plan identifies the objectives of local shopping centres (CZ4 - Local Centre Zone) as to provide convenient shopping and services to meet the daily needs of their local communities and to enable a cultural and community identity appropriate to the place.
In the ACT there are 90 commercial shopping centres, including 66 local shops, 19 group centres, four town centres and Civic. All buildings within the centres are privately owned with the surrounding public areas on unleased land, in most instances, managed by the ACT Government. However, there are some instances where the leased land extends to include some to all the public spaces adjacent to the commercial buildings. For the Local Centre Zoned (CZ4) areas at the Yarralumla local shops, the public spaces, which are also referred to as the shopping precinct, are managed by the ACT Government through Transport Canberra and City Services Directorate (TCCS).
To identify shopping precinct priorities for upgrades across Canberra, each local shopping centre is assessed for its demonstrable need for improvement. The assessment considers the current provision, condition and suitability of the public realm with that centre, including public infrastructure such as parking areas, lighting, accessibility of public walkways, landscaping, signage, trees, etc. Where public realm falls within leased land, the lessee is responsible for these areas.
Local shopping precinct upgrades focus on measures to improve safety, amenity and function with funding contributions also sought from private parties to assist with the ongoing commercial viability of local shopping centres. Those local shopping precincts that receive improvements are likely to see increased turnover, so it’s important to provide opportunity for private parties to co-contribute to such improvements.
In relation to safety and security concerns, TCCS has engaged an external consultant to design new bollards or similar measures to improve safety for patrons and retailers at the Yarralumla Shops. The design should be complete by June 2020.
An officer from TCCS has assessed the Yarralumla Shops and confirmed that TCCS maintain the streetlighting on the footpaths outside the awnings. All the lighting under the awnings at the shops are owned and maintained by the building owner. The streetlights on Bentham Street were updated approximately five years ago by TCCS. The remaining streetlights in the area have been added to the list for future replacement as part of the major upgrade of ACT’s streetlight network to energy efficient Light Emitting Diode (LED) lights, which will improve the overall quality of lighting.
TCCS has also inspected and confirmed the provision of parking around the Yarralumla shops. There are currently on-street parking areas on Hutchins, Banks, Hooker and Mueller Streets for Yarralumla Shop patrons. Parking requirements for shops are defined in the planning guidelines Parking and Vehicular Access Guide. The current arrangements for the Yarralumla Shops meet the provision guide of six spaces per 100 sqm of gross floor area, with visitor’s parking within 200 metres of the shops. A review of land custodianship, within a 100 metre radius from the shops, indicates that the only two publicly owned blocks are already allocated as carparking areas.
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