23 July 2010

Developing the Eastern ACT

| johnboy
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[First filed: Jul 22, 2010 @ 9:59]

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What else can we dump onto the NSW Border?

That’s the question Andrew Barr is asking under the heading “planning for employment growth”.

What it’s really about is a discussion paper titled: Eastern Broadacre planning project – Potential employment corridor.

The ACT Planning and Land Authority (ACTPLA) is starting long-term planning for the eastern side of the ACT, known as Eastern Broadacre. Community input is sought on ideas for this area, particularly its role as a future employment corridor.

Eastern Broadacre extends from Majura to Hume and includes Symonston and the Jerrabomberra Valley. It is identified in The Canberra Spatial Plan (2004) as a future potential employment corridor, providing for the growth of industrial, broadacre commercial, tourism, recreation and transport related activities.

Comments close 17 September 2010.

UPDATE: In response to this the Liberals’ Brendan Smyth is trying to terrify his Tuggeranonites with the spectre of previous planning decisions:

“I don’t have to remind the residents of Brindabella, and more broadly in the ACT, of ACT Labor’s shocking record on consultation with previous planning proposals, such as the gas fired power station and data centre projects, the enlargement of Karralika, the dragway and the prison.

“The simple fact is, after nine years of ACT Labor, they can not be trusted on developing and delivering projects that meet the needs of the Canberra community. If the power station fiasco taught us anything, it is to be aware of the potential planning changes and to examine carefully what the government has planned.

“In particular, the residents of Macarthur, Fadden and Gilmore (who are most directly affected) should ensure that they are aware of the plan, or potentially attend a briefing centre and comment as they feel appropriate.

“Brindabella’s business and equestrian communities should also look carefully at the discussion paper to see what effects proposed developments will have on them,” Mr Smyth concluded.

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Gungahlin Al6:43 pm 23 Jul 10

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?

amarooresident312:14 pm 23 Jul 10

+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.

captainwhorebags11:52 am 23 Jul 10

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.

Gungahlin Al11:27 am 23 Jul 10

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.

Pork Hunt said :

ryza said :

Monster truck parks, methadone clinics & day care centres or a big wall to keep the ‘Queen Bee Annes’ out.

The Chinese tried a wall to keep the rabbits out although history does not record if they were successful. Hadrian had a wall.
The East Germans tried a wall in Berlin which sort of worked…

Fraid you’re stuck with us.

You’re just providing us with good ideas!

hmm how about a dragway.

ryza said :

Monster truck parks, methadone clinics & day care centres or a big wall to keep the ‘Queen Bee Annes’ out.

The Chinese tried a wall to keep the rabbits out although history does not record if they were successful. Hadrian had a wall.
The East Germans tried a wall in Berlin which sort of worked…

Fraid you’re stuck with us.

Monster truck parks, methadone clinics & day care centres or a big wall to keep the ‘Queen Bee Annes’ out.

georgesgenitals3:51 pm 22 Jul 10

arescarti42 said :

That’s an awful lot of land pretty close to the city, there has to be lots of good uses for it.

Except it’s bloody noisy and gets very wet sometimes.

That’s an awful lot of land pretty close to the city, there has to be lots of good uses for it.

I have never heard or seen the words “employment” and “corridor” combined in this way. Are they talking about an industrial zone? Or is it some new space age kind of dole queue?

Whther they put light or medium industrial in there, it’ll be good for the employment conditions, I’d imagine.

georgesgenitals10:46 am 22 Jul 10

I think that Jerrabomberra Valley is the overflow for if Googong Dam fails…

Airport Freight Hub, VFT, Majura Parkway = Lots of Jobs?

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