Brendan Smyth is having some fun with Simon Corbell’s planning efforts with the Majura Parkway:
It was revealed that Simon Corbell as Planning Minister was asked by businesses at the Majura Park Shopping Precinct to provide on and off access from the Majura Parkway to the northern end of the Majura Park Shopping Precinct. He declined, [...]

There’s been a lot of heat and smoke coming from Gawler Crescent in Deakin lately.
Finally the ABC has unravelled the issues.
I’m not going to name names here, but well worth a read and oh so many familiar faces.

The Liberals’ Alistair Coe has announced a doomed run at de-railing Draft Variation 306 because he wants poor people to live in darkness.
Shadow Minister for Planning and Infrastructure Alistair Coe will today try to block Draft Variation 306 which has been widely condemned by the building industry. The Government’s changes to the planning rules will [...]

Andrew Barr has announced he’s going to stop playing dollhouses with supermarkets in the ACT:
In its response the Government notes that there have been several important changes in the Territory’s supermarket sector since 2010, when the Government introduced the Supermarket Competition Policy Implementation Plan (SCPIP).
These changes include:
– The new ‘full-line’ supermarkets to be built in [...]

Despite the claims of the high profile owner, last week Actpla quietly informed neighbours that 11 Gawler Cres is not DA Exempt and that it would be treated as a ‘proposed’ demolition and rebuild. The proposal will now be Merit Tracked by Actpla.
Anyone who is interested can review the DA application – 201323512 and should [...]

Genevieve Wauchope, Executive Director of the Canberra Environment Centre, is inviting us along to think about and discuss what Canberra should look like for the next 100 years.
Does the Canberra you want to live in have higher density living areas? Does it have community vegetable gardens in public parks or recycling stations throughout Civic? [...]

Yarralumla residents seem to be opposed to any sort of development at all according to the ABC.
Given that the area seems to already include a large number of embassies and given the suburbs proximity to the Parliamentary precinct it seems to make sense to locate the additional embassies in Yarralumla.
Yarralumla already has plenty of open [...]

The GCC is kicking up a fuss over the Stalinist command and control based land planning in the ACT which is going to plonk a Bunnings down next to the Magnet Mart.
The Gungahlin Community Council meeting on Wednesday 13 March will hear a presentation on pre Development Application consultation relating to the proposed development of [...]

The Australian is running a perverse piece by Angela Shanahan both praising and cursing Canberra. (tip for new players, google the headline to get around the paywall)
Basically she seems to have rather liked the Canberra of sprawling bungalows.
She as much as acknowledges that it was unsustainable financially, but then continues to berate the ACT Government [...]

Thanks to Sam for the tip. Marco Bohr’s Visual Culture Blog has turned its global blowtorch to the subject of Canberra’s footpaths.
My new photographic project Right of Way addresses the failures of a modern project and the clash between urbanity and nature. Photographed in Canberra – an early example of a completely planned city [...]

INNER SOUTH CANBERRA COMMUNITY COUNCIL
ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING
7 PM 27 NOVEMBER 2011
EASTLAKE CLUB, OXLEY STREET, GRIFFITH
DRAFT AGENDA
1. Welcome – Gary Kent, Chairperson
2. Apologies
3. Guest Speakers
(a) 7 pm “Our changing suburbs – what, when and how and why don’t I know about it?” Craig Simmons Environment and Sustainable Development Directorate ACT Government
(b) 7.30 pm “A proposal to re-zone the majority of [...]

The Greens’ Caroline Le Couteur has unveiled her party’s thoughts on planning:
The ACT Greens planning measures include over four years:
– $1 million for amendment of the Territory Plan to aim at the ACT’s greenhouse gas reduction targets
– $366,000 for construction industry education during the transition to energy efficient buildings
– $200,000 to connect communities through neighbourhood [...]

There is a lot of news disseminated here about changes to traffic conditions due to road works, what you don’t get to find out though is that they might do something silly like stop traffic during peak hour.
“They can do all the road works, curvy roads and 40 signs they like, but they will never make us as slow as a [...]

The Supreme Court has finally passed judgment to affirm that the long delayed Giralang shops can be a restored to a functional community asset even at the expense of nearby rent-seekers.
Owners of nearby potential rival shops have been mercifully put in their place:
In the absence of persuasive evidence that the proposed development will put [...]

Simon Corbell is asking for your thoughts on Pialligo’s draft master plan:
“Pialligo is a unique place in Canberra and has been an important part of its history, but we must also plan for its future,” Mr Corbell said.
“The consultation on this master plan is the perfect opportunity for people to voice their opinions, concerns and [...]

The Australian is running a lengthy story on The Walter Burley Griffin Society’s latest complaints about urban planning in Canberra. (google the headline and click if the paywall troubles you).
The Society has also published a lengthy video on the Griffin’s plans for Canberra which you can see above.
Their complaint to the Australian was this:
“The society [...]

The ABC have the news that, in a further prostitution of the budget process as the spinners turn, an extra $12 million for the National Capital Authority is coming tonight, spread over 4 years, and predicated on “simplifying” planning controls on national land.
Regional Australia Minister Simon Crean says the NCA must resolve confusion about [...]

Joy Burch has announced the start of consultation for a Tuggeranong Town Park master plan:
The ACT Government has allocated $80,000 for the preparation of the Master Plan as part of the Town and District Park Upgrade Program, with a further $1 million available to implement capital upgrades arising from the consultation and Master Plan.
Ms Burch [...]

Simon Corbell has announced the referral of Draft Variation 306 to the Standing Committee on Planning, Public Works and Territory and Municipal Services.
(If you’re fortunate enough to have avoided the DV processes thus far they relate to planning laws, which means what your house will look like and how much it will cost.)
“DV 306 to [...]

The Greens’ Caroline Le Couteur has added to a busy week of Green announcements (in contrast to the very quiet Liberals as they watch their leader bleed out) with the announcement of an exposure draft for a Planning and Development (Greenhouse Gas Reduction Targets) Amendment Bill 2012:
“If we are going to address greenhouse gas emissions [...]

[ 4 March, 2012; 10:00 am to 2:00 pm. ]

Sunday 4 March at Cook Community Hub, 41 Templeton Street, Cook 10.00 am – 2.00 pm  There is no charge for a performance by Warehouse Circus at 10.00 am, facepainting for children, sausage sandwiches, tea and coffee. 

Come and have your questions about fences, trees, noise, planning, the law, community connection, and many others answered by [...]

Back in November the Greens were furious about Government efforts to end planning appeals to Kingston Foreshore developments. They were concerned the moves would limit their ability to get involved in the Kingston Arts Precinct.
Yesterday it appears a compromise was reached which, unusually, pleased all parties.
First the Greens’ Caroline Le Couteur was happy, with some [...]

The Dickson Community Planning Alliance is celebrating a win in the ACT Civil and Administrative Tribunal:
Developers had planned to replace 2 houses with 10 units. The Tribunal confirmed that the
development violated a number of planning requirements and was inconsistent with the Territory Plan.
Ms Jane Goffman, a town planner and resident of Dickson, was a key [...]

Yesterday’s blazing row between the ACT Treasurer Andrew Barr and the Canberra Times has entered a second day.
Noel Towell has been put on the case and has had a chat to the Chief Minister on the issues.
Oddly enough no mention is made of the fireworks on facebook or Twitter.
But Barr is not content with the [...]

Overnight the Canberra Times Ewa Kretowicz was quoting a spokesperson of Andrew Barr on plans to speed up the development of the Brumbies headquarters into lucrative inner south apartments:
Acting planning minister Andrew Barr was reviewing the lease conditions at the ACT Brumbies rugby club in ”the public interest”, his spokesman said last night. If [...]

Andrew Barr has announced that Canberra’s planning system isn’t up to approving an Early Childhood School so he’s calling it in:
I have used my call-in powers, as Acting Minister for Environment and Sustainable Development, to approve the development which will see over 400 children benefitting from the new school.
The school includes a childcare centre for [...]

Shane Rattenbury is celebrating victory in his campaign to get biodiversity and connectivity data into the ACT’s electronic mapping system, ACTMAPi.
“I am pleased to see that finally, after the ACT Greens calling for this for 6 years, a layer of key information about biodiversity and ecological connectivity will be just one click away in the [...]

There’s little sadder in life than a politician trying to make a pop-culture reference.
It’s not that they can’t tell a joke, it’s more the painful way they feel the need to ploddingly explain it for the thickies in the audience.
To that end the Greens’ Caroline Le Couteur is painfully referencing Arthur Dent from The Hitchhiker’s [...]

Twitter Cabinet is happening again at 12.30. This time around there’s a theme; “The Canberra you want to live in past 2013″.
Even if you’re blessedly free of Twitter you can follow the action below.

new TWTR.Widget({
version: 2,
type: ‘search’,
search: ‘actvcc’,
interval: 30000,
title: ‘ACT Virtual Community Cabinet’,
subject: [...]

Yesterday we noted that the Economic Development Directorate had taken the unusual step of asking Canberrans to vote on how they’d like new supermarkets in Dickson to be developed.
But it did not take long for numerous readers to report problems with the poll.
#6 poetix
3:59 pm, 22 Nov 11
I just voted at the site and the [...]

Simon Corbell has announced new planning regulations for the Kingston Foreshore to speed things up:
“Third party reviews to date have been creating excessive delay in some developments in the Kingston Foreshore precinct, and this is an important decision to create certainty for development of this area,” Mr Corbell said.
“The Kingston Foreshore is a highly planned [...]

In Civic last weekend, I came across a sandwich board outside of the ACT Parliament about a consultation session on the ACT Government’s Draft ACT Planning Strategy, and the Transport for Canberra Plan.
Having fairly strong views on both, I went in to give them a piece of my mind, and came out 2 hours later. [...]