Loading ...In the Canberra Times today that champion, in my opinion, of big developers John Thistleton is heroically trying to pre-empt a National Capital Authority review of the green corridors that separate Canberra’s satellite towns.
The dream of developers is apparently unfettered construction on the city’s ridgelines, without even constraint on height (although with all that new land flooding the market expensive high rise construction wouldn’t make a lot of economic sense to builders, more likely to see mcmansions).
I think we can safely say that the distinct characters of Gungahlin and Tuggeranong are not going to be sung by the bards for generations (at least not in a positive way).
And who loses? A few dog walkers, a couple of mountain bikers (advised no doubt to head to Stromlo), half a dozen bird watchers (no doubt vocal in the letters pages).
Balance that against thousands of desperately needed new homes and a major release of pressure on the rest of the housing market. To say nothing of the transport and infrastructure benefits of greater urban density.
So it wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing.
But it would mean we’d have to abandon the increasingly tattered conceit of Canberra being a "Planned City".
Rather it would become even clearer that we’re a city with staged embuggerances forcing sub-optimal construction at any given time.
Perhaps better to just zone up the land and let the buyers and sellers work it all out?
