7 December 2005

Corbell's Canberra plan chosen but still no way forward

| Kerces
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The Canberra Central Task Force report has been released and the Canberra Times, in an exclusive report, brings the news that they have chosen Planning Minister Simon Corbell’s plan to base Civic’s redevelopment on.

You may remember that a whole lot of plans were submitted to the taskforce with suggestions for what to do with the Civic area. A particular focus of many of them was City Hill and how to use that space better. Previous RA coverage (that I can find) of these plans is here and here.

The main competitor to Mr Corbell’s plan, in my mind at least, was one sponsored by airport owner and developer Terry Snow.

The main elements of the plan the taskforce recommended be carried out were to leave City Hill untouched except for a kiosk, lookout and other appropriate minor developments; to divert traffic from Vernon Circle to London Circuit, leaving the former as a ceremonial road to Parliament House; and to construct a new Legislative Assembly, court buildings, convention centre and high-density residential developments, although none of these will be on City Hill as in Mr Snow’s plan.

Under the redevelopment, London Circuit would be widened and turned into an “urban boulevard, operating as the main public transport circuit for Canberra central”. The report also recommended the government investigate the possibility of putting a tunnel under City Hill in case the planned traffic diversion create chaos.

However the taskforce failed to decide how the project should proceed, one of the minister’s main demands of them. Some people, including Zed Seselja and Mr Snow, say a statuatory authority should be set up, as has been the case with other major developments across Australia. Apparently some of the taskforce members thought this was the best way to go but others thought the Government’s Land Development Agency was up to the job.

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midnitecalla8:04 pm 11 Dec 05

Umm, Didnt we have a statutory authority?
(scratches head) yep we did ! then some idiots defanged it.IT was Called The NCDC…..

Dear God! More dangerous folly!

Hey – I’m not against redeveloping the City, but has Corbell (or ACTPLA, or the NCA, or Snow, or any of the concerned parties) considered any of the following:

1. How long is this going to take?
2. How are they going to stage the development (in a cascade/all at once)?
3. What the hell are the existing Civic retailers going to do while this is happening and Civic is an EVEN LESS attractive place to shop?

The Section 87 development, and the resulting lack of parking crippled trade in the Petrie Plaza/City Walk/Garema Place area. Retailers should have been making good moolah during the last couple of years of good economic times to sock away for the inevitable downturn. Instead businesses are going bust, everyone’s on their way to the bank for bigger overdrafts/loan refinancing, and all the restaurants in the area have been put on Cash on Delivery by their suppliers (When a restaurant owner wants to know how their business is going, they ask their fish supplier.)

Jeeze Simon! Leave Civic alone for a while. You’ll go blind!

i think that the local alp have this as their motto: ‘we have no plan therfore nothing can go wrong’.

Fingers crossed there will be no statutory body. It will be a NCA hitler-esque body of fuckwits, idiots and arse clowns

Slinky the Shocker11:17 am 07 Dec 05

An urban boulevard? What a crock. Get cars out of civic and open a lot of cafes and pubs, that’s how you get life in there…

I’m glad to see the plan for a light rail hub in the centre of Canberra has finally gained some traction…

No wait, Corbell’s in charge isn’t he ?

Oh well, it could have been a good idea…

How does Vernon Circuit become a ceremonial road to Parliament House? It’s on the other side of the lake.

Divert all that traffic into Civic? What manner of crack smokery is this!

Ceremonial bloody roads.

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