ACT Planning Review

The Inner South Canberra Community Council has produced its own District Planning Strategy

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Petition on densification on Hawker RZ1 blocks

Residents near two Housing ACT properties in Alexandria St, Hawker, have organised a petition objecting to plans released in this Christmas-New Year period to replace two single houses with five (see above under DAs). The plans would result in significant loss of green space and trees in contradiction of the recent changes accepted by the ACT Government under Variation 369 to reduce the heat island effect of hard surfaces that absorb heat. The petition can be signed online or submitted on paper. Consultation on this DA closes on 17 January 2022.

Blocks 21 and 22 are scheduled for densification in an ordinary residential zone not designated for such.

Consultation on WHD duplication

The Belconnen Community Council had a presentation on 14 November and are ready to run a special meeting on December 14, prior to consultation closing on the William Hovell Drive duplication on 19 December, if there’s enough interest. TCCS have offered to update on progress at that time. If you’d like BCC to run this event, please get in touch by 7 December at hello@belcouncil.org.au. The current information on WHD is at https://yoursayconversations.act.gov.au/WHDupgrade.

DV369 – greener suburbs

DV369 a step towards a greener more livable future for our neighbourhoods

Vandalising public DA signs

Unreadable DA signs behind Kurundi Place, Hawker

These signs possibly illustrate the frustration of local residents about the poor consultation carried out for the development application relating to the duplication of William Hovell Drive. Apparently, normal practice is to place signs on the relevant block. In this case, the only block near William Hovell Drive is Approved Rural Block 1368, which runs from William Hovell Drive opposite Whitlam up to Springvale Drive and the back of Hawker. Notices were sent to all residents backing onto this block but not to the 33 blocks backing directly onto William Hovell Drive near the intersection with Drake Brockman Drive. These blocks were specifically named in the Noise Management Report as being most affected by increased noise levels from the road. Apparently, the DA documents are not read before the DA is publicised.

Canberra Times 22 Nov 2010

ACT Planning Consultation

ACT Planning Minister Mick Gentleman announced in June 2021 that a new ACT Planning Act is in the making. What input from the local community will there be in this process? Will there be genuine consultation? These are particularly important questions since research from the ANU suggests public trust in government has fallen to an all time low.

In this article, it is argued that public consultation, as practised by the ACT government, is flawed because it is an end-of-pipe exercise undertaken after all policy development has taken place behind closed doors. 

This flawed character arises in part from a conception of governance which sees the delivery of public goods as best achieved through the ‘market’: Government provides its services through so structuring competition that market actors realise these public goods for government. Government thus becomes a de facto agent for the private sector. The role of the public service also changes: its job is now to work with private interests in order to secure Government policy goals. So, in any consultation around a new Planning Act, government and its bureaucracy will be de facto representatives of market actors, in this case, developers and the construction industry. 

Alternative conceptions of governance and consultation exist. There are a variety of approaches, ranging from those which give real power to the community (collaboration) to cynical manipulation.

https://www.canberraplanningactiongroup.com/post/paving-the-path-to-a-brighter-future?utm_campaign=172890c7-a273-411c-bb87-4b2a9442e39e&utm_source=so&utm_medium=mail&cid=82198752-9463-4f4a-a4d2-627f510668b2

7 Smith Street gets the mechanical digger treatment

The demolition team moved in to knock down the Edlington Farmhouse on Smith Street in Weetangera on Wednesday evening. Until 60 or so years ago, the building was part of a large dairy farm but gradually the city suburban sprawl has surrounded it. It’s not a particularly old building – just a working farmhouse – but it is significant, and it gives a glimpse of the area before Canberra spread. When the couple who ran the historic, pre-Canberra Duntroon dairy farm found that much of their grazing land was about to be inundated with the water that would become Lake Burley Griffin, they decided to seek pastures new. The pair – Bill and May Edlington – found those new pastures where the doomed farmhouse now stands. Six decades ago, it was farmland where race horses were raised but today it is classic Canberra suburbia. The Edlingtons’ farm extended northeast to include the area around the present Lathlain and Josephson Streets, Belconnen and northwest into the current suburb of Latham. Canberra Times 16/9/2021

Canberra’s planning not fit for purpose

Canberra’s planning function ‘not fit for purpose’

Consultation near markets

The block in question is the gravel carpark between the motel and Belconnen Way.