An urban design advisory committee has been set up to advice the Minister Environment, Land and Planning, Bill Wood, on urban design matters.
Mr Wood announced the committee yesterday. It comes as one of a string of initiatives on the planning front after a year or more of community concern over the Territory Plan, in-fill and urban consolidation.
Mr Wood said the committee “”will provide the Minister and the ACT Planning Authority with advice relating to even higher quality urban and residential design in the ACT. UDAC would also consider other design matters referred to it by the Minister”.
Its members are: Pam Berg, art historian and director of Mitchell Giurgola and Thorp (who did the Legislative Assembly and Parliament); Clem Cummings, heritage architect; Catherine Keirnan, who has her own landscape architecture and interior design practice; and Jan Martin, a town planner and architect with Argyle Consultants, one of Bob Winnel’s development companies; Tom Kean, long-time Canberra architect with his own practice who did the Times Square project and others while with Woods Bagot.
Mr Wood said they had a wide spectrum of interests and had the technical and commercial skills to improve design quality.
Mr Wood announced last week additional guidelines for dual occupancy (or more technically, multi-occupancy) and he earlier announced energy-efficiency standards, controls on garages and landscaping, requirements for trees and the setting up of the urban design unit within his department.
The initiatives come after increased community concern in Canberra about development which resulted in the formation of the Save Our City Coalition of 19 residential groups earlier this year. One of its aims is to make planning an election issue.
The coalition is chaired by the Conservation Council of Canberra. Its president, Jacqui Rees, said, “”At long last the Minister is sitting up and taking notice of the Conservation Council. The atrocious quality of urban development has been a major issue for the council.”
The council and the coalition would wait and see what translates on the ground.
The Liberal planning spokesman on planning matters, Greg Cornwell, said Mr Wood “”is putting out spot fires”. He would like to see the ACT Planning Authority have the right to refer matters to the committee.
The ACTPA should start enforcing its powers with stop-work orders, refusals or even demolitions.
“”There are a few cowboys out there getting away with things,” he said. The authority would only have to use those orders once and the word would get around that the authority had teeth and was willing to bite.
“”I am tired of people putting profits ahead of the quality of life of surrounding residents,” he said.
Mr Cornwell also attacked the Government over the Optus communications towers. Optus had as a good corporate citizen told the ACT Department of Environment, Land and Planning about the towers even though it was not obliged to under Commonwealth law. Yet the department did not pass it on. Residents had to find out what was going on from construction workers.
“”The Liberal Party is committing its self to ensuring that no local development proceeds prior to residents being consulted and informed,” he said.
Mr Wood said that his new advisory committee would examine the guidelines for the B1 (Northbourne Avenue spine) area, especially on densities, the range and style of units and underground garaging. The guidelines would hold until July 1995, but might be modified depending on the committee’s advice.