Developing the Eastern ACT

Cheers. HB: the reason they get squeezed out of the urban rural fringe is exactly why it could work there – no residential fringe due to the noise constraints.

a nuclear power station?

+1 Gungahlin Al. The idea of an employment corridor in this area has been arounf for a long time. Good to see some action on it.

I would be very surprised to see the land used for market gardens. Reverting to that use so close to a CBD, two CBDs in this case, would be contrary to every theory of urban development I’ve seen. It doesn’t mean it’s not a good idea, but it’s unlikely in this current political and economic environment.

Market gardens usually get squeezed out of the rural-urban fringe as it becomes more urban than rural, and land prices (and usually rates) go up.

Gungahlin Al said :

Personally, I have been promoting to ACTPLA over the last year of the preliminary work on this study that much of the Majura end could be used for intensive horticulture – market gardens, glasshouse growing and hydroponics, thereby bringing food production closer to food consumption. Reduced food miles are a ‘good thing’ in many ways environmental, social and economic. ‘Making stuff’, and along the way further diversifying Canberra’s employment. A real triple bottom line move.

One of the best ideas that I’ve read in a long time.

Miz – as each area of Canberra suffers a Stanhope development debacle, they gain sympathy for other areas. After the dragway drama near us, I had huge sympathy for Macarthur.

As for a dragway within the confines of Canberra, I’m sorry, but I don’t think it is going to happen. Stanhope was very keen to build one, but could not find a single suitable spot where it would not have had a huge noise impact on a number of residents. His own noise report showed the majura valley sites were not possible – and his own reports are usually pretty sympathetic to his plans, so the results must have been pretty damning.

I believe this is an example of ACTPLA doing it right – getting in well ahead of the curve, before someone comes along and tries to set an agenda that instead suits their own purposes and so they can scoop a windfall profit, a la Bob Winnell with Tralee.

People may be interested that the study also aims to set up interim allowable uses for the corridor.

Reality is that it’s a highly noise affected area, and along a principal transport route. This makes it highly suitable for the large-scale industrial uses that are getting squeezed out of Fyshwick and Mitchell due to encroachment of so called “light industrial” and big box retailing uses. And while certainly they would create employment at some distance from residential areas, and therefore cause transport demand, these sorts of uses are typically not of the sort that could or should be anywhere near homes. They do help diversify employment (something we badly need here), but their employee per hectare rate would typically be far lower than other employment zones.

Personally, I have been promoting to ACTPLA over the last year of the preliminary work on this study that much of the Majura end could be used for intensive horticulture – market gardens, glasshouse growing and hydroponics, thereby bringing food production closer to food consumption. Reduced food miles are a ‘good thing’ in many ways environmental, social and economic. ‘Making stuff’, and along the way further diversifying Canberra’s employment. A real triple bottom line move.

I’m yet to read the report so don’t yet know to what extent my thoughts have been taken up by ACTPLA.

Smyth does have a point, but in going for the local angle he has missed the main issue. The ‘plan’, which is really more a drawing in this case, pretty well undermines any pretence the current government has to looking after Canberra as a ‘bush capital’.

Think where this will take us in a decade or two. The jobs will be in one half of Canberra, and the people will live in another half – in their dormitory suburbs. Even more of our lives will be spent on congested roads as we drive everywhere: to schools, work, shops, doctors, sportsgrounds (if any are left after the current push for infill).

I don’t know who the geniuses are at ACTPLA, but they really need to do some further studies in planning and its relationship to triple bottom line sustainability.

And as a by the way, ‘broadacre’ was never meant to be used an excuse for unconstrained development at the expense of sound planning and sensitive development in the rest of a jurisdiction.

Actually Brendan Smyth has a valid point – lots of undesirable stuff has already been dumped in Tuggeranong and more is planned, yet not one of the consultations is south of Narrabundah . . . it would be good if Canberrans stopped being so damn parochial about their own little area and took up the causes of other areas, because ‘what’s good for the goose (a roasting, apparently) is good for the gander’. All those people who thought the Macarthur issue was a local suburb issue should think again and look at the green space near them, because the ACT Govt just sees $$$ signs where you see green space.

Wow, is this for real? Three letters and a word: UXO. bang.

Also for the northern end, surely the mess that is Gungahlin* with all those people and no jobs demonstrates how bad an idea it would be to have a huge, separated area with lots of jobs and no housing? Especially as Majura parkway nee road, the airport area roads (and dare we mention the ghost of Monash dr) are proving so hard to do right already. Surely they can’t be planning housing out there too, are they? after the tralee fiasco? surely that would just be creating ‘purpose built slums of the future’? what’s that you say about rows of ticky tacky townhouses … oops.

As for ‘recreation and transport related activities’ oh how quickly some can forget what used to be out there and has since been shut down… (for the new comers, a drag strip apparently closed for noise reasons hence #9, with several other motoring clubs just over the hill facing noise restrictions too, and more recently a bit of forest loved by MTBers to be arbitrarily cut in half for the road)

There has to be something good that can be done out there but the buzzwords in this ill-thought out release are not it. Here’s hoping the community can come up with something good that is listened to, after all this cynicism i’m not seeing anything new.

*this is not meant to be a troll. yes, I’m knocking it, yes, I used to live there but voted with my feet.