A coalition of 13 North Canberra groups called yesterday for a stop to redevelopment or in-fill in North Canberra until the ACT Government provides clear details of its plan for the area.
They are concerned that once redevelopment starts a North Watson there would be no turning back and the area could be another Kingston. They say that once the Government spends the money on an improved sewer it will be committed financially to other in-fill.
The groups also received support from southside and Belconnen groups. The groups include various groups from individual suburbs and the Canberra Conservation Council.
Graham Horn of the North Canberra Protection Group says the Government plans to increase North Canberra population by 30 per cent, requiring 5000 dwellings.
Elvie Munday, of Concerned Citizens of Dickson, said the Territory Plan did not show precisely where the new dwellings would go. Decisions were ad-hoc; there was no co-ordinated plan.
The ACT Government has defended its 50-50 plan as the most efficient way to use what it says is under-used infrastructure, including schools, in inner suburbs and better than depending on greenfields growth. It says community consultation processes are adequate and are under constant review to improve them.
The North Watson proposals have also been supported by the Real Estate Institute of the ACT.
The president of the conservation council, Jacqueline Rees, said the Government was being ill-advised about the depth of discontent over planning. Instead of playing crude games of divide and rule with the community and harassing anyone who questions the administration the Government should examine that administration as a matter of urgency.
The forming of a coalition of community groups on planning issues showed it was not a case of one affected suburb selfishly pushing a problem to another, but an overall concern that redevelopment and in-fill should be done well and that community groups should not just be politely listened to, but their views respected and fully taken into account.
The coalition is to write to the Assembly’s Planning, Development and Infrastructure Committee asking it to defer in-proposals for North Canberra until the Government provides more details.