An indoor sports stadium for Tuggeranong and a neighbourhood centre for Gungahlin are among projects that never made it from the 1992-93 forward design list to the capital works list of 1993-94, according to Independent MLA Helen Szuty. Ms Szuty compared the forward design list the capital works listed recently published for 1993-94.
She called last week for an explanation from the Government as to why the following forward designs of 1992-93 will not become bricks and mortar in 1993-94: The Tuggeranong stadium and the Gungahlin centre, weatherproofing at Belconnen bus interchange, a roundabout at the Cotter Road-McCulloch Street intersection, extensions to the Belconnen fire station and a community arts access workshop.
She says the 1993-94 forward-design list comprises 17 projects. She wonders how many of them will make it to the capital works for 1994-95. These include a high school for Gungahlin, Nicholls pre-school and primary school and the refurbishment of the City police station.
She said now was an ideal time for the Government, which says it is committed to community consultation, to inform the community how projects are selected for the capital works program.
The chair of the Assembly’s Planning, Development and Infrastructure Committee, David Lamont, said last week that the level of capital works this financial year would be about the same as last year, despite the Woden Hospital project drawing to a close.
On other planning issues, the Opposition spokesman on planning, Trevor Kaine, said he had seen “”enormous discontent and ill-feeling in the community” over the Government’s failure to map out a strategy over redevelopment. “”A proper hearing by the Government to the views of groups and individuals about planning proposals currently in the pipeline is long overdue,” he said.
Individuals and community groups wanted to know what sites had been identified for in-fill and what were the criteria for selection. What was the strategy? The Government had gone into a bunker commitment an refused to attend meetings called by community groups or talk to community representatives.
However, the Minister for Planning, Bill Wood, said he was prepared to go to public meetings to explain proposals, as he had done with the North Watson plan. Mr Kaine said he welcomed the initiative of 16 community groups which were arranging the Save Our City rally at Acton Peninsula on August 15.
These groups were advocating a halt to North Canberra planning until the Government “”comes clean” about its in-fill plans. The Belconnen Community Council condemned last week the report to the Assembly by the planning committee on the Belconnen Golf Course development.
It said the report made no mention of the question of betterment tax which had been raised during the committee’s public inquiry and did not acknowledge the community opposition to housing the middle of a golf course. The committee’s report approved a plan for about 300 medium-density houses on the site, but required the developer to make further road and other public works.
The council called for a higher betterment tax, saying the present remissions of up to 50 per cent were too generous to developers. A Canberra valuer, however, has expressed an opposing view on betterment.
Noel McCann said that existing leases were contracts between the Government and the resident. They could not be broken by either party. Therefore when a new use was being proposed by the Government it had to offer an incentive to the existing user to vacate the lease before it ran out. A remission in betterment was necessary to encourage someone to vacate the lease early, otherwise they could stay there until the lease ran out, stymieing redevelopment plans.
A 50 per cent betterment tax was an early capture of capital to the community, he said. It was not a subsidy to the developer.
Mr McCann said the community also got a benefit after redevelopment through higher rates and land tax. “”The ACT community, in my view, is better off taking 50 cents in the dollar today, rather than a dollar at the expiration of a Crown lease at some stage in the future,” he said.
The unacceptable alternative was compulsory acquisition and re-auction. Even then, he said, the Government would have to pay compensation, probably at a market rate that took into account the potential for new uses.