Once again, the ACT Government’s planning laws and practice have come unstuck. This time it is Section 41 in Manuka.
The original plan was for a $36-million mall-type development to replace the carpark opposite Woolworths. Woolworths would move in to the new mall and the existing Woolworths would be redeveloped into small retail and part of the Woolworths site would be used for the redevelopment of Palmerston Lane, which could be made more user friendly because it would no longer have to accommodate large food-delivery trucks.
Now it appears that Woolworths is to withdraw from Section 41 and stay put, as it is entitled to do. It could either continue under its existing sub-lease renewed from time to time, or buy the head lease from entrepreneur Dick Smith.
Urban Services Brendan Smyth says, “”It doesn’t make a lot of difference.”
This is a foolish understatement. Surely, it wreck the whole scheme, flawed as it was in any event. If Woolworths stays put it will demand, and presumably have some enforceable right to have, access to its premises by large refrigerated trucks. That must wreck any hope to have Palmerston Lane to upgraded to a lane for pedestrians, restaurants and shops.
The developer of Section 41, Morris Consolidated Pty Ltd may well be under some obligation to upgrade Palmerston Lane, but what will be the point if the southern end of it has to be shared with refrigerated trucks?
One of the stated central aims and justification of this very misguided redevelopment plan was to get Woolworths out of its present site so Palmerston Lane could be widened and redeveloped. If Woolworths stays put, that cannot happen.
It gets worse. If Woolworths stays put, what will happen to the space slotted for a supermarket in the new development on Section 41? It will go to another supermarket chain presumably, probably Coles. So we will have two supermarkets in Manuka competing for the already hopeless stretched food-retail dollar in south Canberra. Most likely they will be two the size of the existing Woolworths, which on all accounts is not quite large enough to sustain the range of goods, say, of Dickson’s more successful store in Dickson, or Coles in Curtin. So the people, insofar as they had anything to hope for from this development will not get the larger supermarket they might have hoped for.
The Section 41 development should never have been allowed in the first place. Canberra has too much retail space as it is, especially in the inner areas. The development has the danger of turning Manuka into a centre like Woden, Tuggeranong or Belconnen town centres, thereby destroying the unique atmosphere of Manuka with its shops fronting the street with the close-by churches and established houses. The development would threaten the livelihood of a lot of existing businesses in the area.
No doubt the developer will do well. The developer can build, take the profit and leave. It is not the developer’s concern what happens to existing stakeholders. But it was and is the Government’s concern. It is now stuck with the consequences of short-term thinking — grab a few short-term development jobs and too bad for the viability of existing small businesses. It is stuck with having allowed irreversible action — signing the contract with Morris and allowing the pre-emptive destruction of mature trees at dawn on a weekend.
The latest incident shows the Government has monumentally on this. Monumentally, because what happens now on Section 41 and Palmerston Lane will be a monument to its failure.
Unfortunately, this is not one incident of develop-first planning coming unstuck; it is a pattern.