New planning guidelines will be drawn up for multi-unit residential redevelopment in Canberra suburbs, the Minister for Environment, Land and Planning, Bill Wood, announced yesterday.
The guidelines would supplement those already prepared for redevelopment in the central spine in North Canberra (the B1 area); Kingston-Griffith and the Forrest-Red Hill historic area.
The move comes after sustained residential and community-group objection to dual occupancy developments.
(In fact the Territory Plan provides for as many residences that can fit within a minimum size, not just dual occupancy.)
Mr Wood said the new guidelines would apply to blocks of land which have more than one dwelling and will be designed to complement the multi-unit code contained in the Territory Plan.
Mr Wood said, “”I am keen to ensure the new guidelines will lead to high standard redevelopment within existing suburbs and guarantee that existing residents’ amenity is preserved.”
The proposed guidelines would be the subject of an inquiry by the Assembly’s Planning Development and Infrastructure Committee and be subject to consultation with public, community groups, the building industry and professional institutes.
Existing applications would be considered provided that the intended developments are of high quality.
Earlier this week the Save Our City Coalition of 19 residential groups urged people affected by bad dual occupancies to seek rates reductions.
The Liberal spokesman on planning, Greg Cornwell, said the Government did not realise that there were some development cowboys out there who did not share Canberra values. There was concern all over Canberra about the Territory Plan, especially when bad development took place next door.
People’s house was often the biggest investment of their life, he said.
Now planning was in the limelight, the new guidelines were the best opportunity ACT residents had to comment and improve the Territory Plan, and he hoped they would take advantage of it.