An sign advertising medium-density units on a joint ACT Housing Trust development on Section 22 Braddon along Torrens Street is to come down because it breaches building regulations.
The Chief Territory Planner, George Tomlins, said yesterday that the developers had agreed to take the sign down. The sign is at the front of one of four detached residences on the site.
A complaint was lodged last week saying that the sign contravened building regulations that said temporary advertising signs shoud not exceed 2.5 metres.
Mr Tomlins said the ACT Planning Authority was reviewing the whole issue of temporary signs.
Neighbours have objected to redevelopment of the site and have lodged an appeal with the Administrative Appeals Tribunal. Independent MLA Michael Moore has called on the Minister for Environment, Land and Planning, Bill Wood, to order an inquiry into redevelopment on the section citing public disquiet and reports that developers were knocking doors of residents asking people to sell.
The development of the site is a joint venture between a private company and the ACT Housing Trust. The developers say they have gone through all of the public consultation requirements and have been levied betterment tax to change the land from low density to medium density.
The Conservation Council of the South East Region and Canberra says present planning law and procedures were permitting speculation and profits going to developers for land-use changes that properly belonged to the community.
The ACT Government says it is trying, within a budget, to permit medium density redevelopment in the inner areas to make better use of existing infrastructure. Mr Tomlins says that within that process reasonable residential amenity of existing residents would be protected.