Page 71 - Week 01 - Tuesday, 11 February 2020
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manner that is sustainable, with appropriate oversight to protect and build upon the qualities that we value about Canberra.
These values inform the Government’s decision making around the supply of land to meet the needs of our growing and changing city. The Indicative Land Release Program (ILRP) aims to release enough land every year to cater for Canberra’s growth and change.
Canberra’s population continues to grow, and over the next 20 years the population is expected to increase by over 40%. A stable supply of new homes, available in a variety of locations and at different price points contributes to the ACT being an attractive place to live and buy a home. The ACT Government has always been clear on the intention for development to occur in the Coombs peninsula. The Molonglo Valley, Coombs and the Coombs peninsula were identified for urban residential development in 2008 through Variation to the Territory Plan No 281 (Molonglo and North Weston) and Amendment to the National Capital Plan No 63 (Molonglo). The Variation applied a future urban area (FUA) overlay over the area and an indicative Residential RZ1 Suburban zoning to the Coombs peninsula, both of which were documented on the Territory Plan map. The Variation was approved by the then Legislative Assembly as part of standard statutory practices.
Before any decision is made to identify an area as future urban area, extensive environmental studies are undertaken to determine the ecological value of the land. The environmental values of these areas were explicitly tested and assessed to support robust and informed decision making occurred about land use within these areas. Broadly speaking, the environmental assessments that were undertaken to support this zoning demonstrated that, due to the past use of the area as a commercial pine plantation, the Coombs peninsula had low environmental value and was therefore not suitable for inclusion into the adjacent Molonglo River corridor reserve.
This conclusion was supported by the decision of the Australian Government to approve development of the peninsula under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act), which occurred in 2010. In doing so, the Australian Government found that a small portion of land within the Coombs peninsula had habitat potential for the pink-tailed wormlizard, but as it was of low quality it was unlikely to be re-colonised through rehabilitation. The EPBC Act approval for development of the Coombs peninsula remains valid, providing development occurs consistent with the Australian Government approval.
In relation to concerns about the platypus, it is not an endangered species, however it is an important species in determining the health of our waterways. Waterwatch is currently finalising a report on the most recent platypus survey work, with the closest monitoring sites below Coppins Crossing bridge. The report will be available in early 2020. Generally, the main concerns that have been raised by the Waterwatch team for the platypus are disturbance from dogs, retaining habitat structure (snags etc) and artificial lighting.
It is within this broad context, that the future delivery of residential development in the Coombs peninsula has been openly and publicly communicated by the ACT Government since 2008.
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