31 October 2008

Dust over Gungahlin today (and other days)

| welkin31
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I wondered what Rioters think of todays dust blowing from the impressive new mountain so quickly built just SE of Magnet Mart.

It is my observation, here and interstate that the real estate developers and construction industries are cut much slack when it comes to dust emissions from their sites.

In past weeks works for the new suburb Casey have also been the source of much dust.

All of this does not quite gel with the great concerns often expressed about air quality.

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Sorry Gungahlin Al, but I have to go with Thumper on this one.

*tee hee*

Gungahlin Al10:23 am 24 Nov 08

It is the “Homemaker Centre” Crabb. Will have landscape/nursery, various retailers, mostly bulky goods style outlets. At least that’s what the lease DA was for. They have to build 2-storey along the Hibberson St frontage.

Does anyone know who is building on that block (next to Magnet Mart) and which businesses will be going in there?

NCDC “were able to provide the best of everything – wide roads, great drainage, massive blocks, interesting urban design, lots of open space and parks (like fitness tracks and adventure playgrounds, etc).” This is what Canberrans consider to be normal. Anything else is an aberration and should be corrected. And this is why people get the sh*ts when developers try to retrofit the cr*p scenario into an NCDC-style plan! (It’s just not cricket).

barking toad1:19 pm 01 Nov 08

And when the topsoil blows as a storm from the NW of NSW you’ll blame which builder?

Hippie.

The dust was everywhere. My house is full of it this morning, yuck.

As for proper planning, yes, this is sorely needing to be re-introduced. The higgeldy-piggeldy mess that is Gunghalin shows what the efficient, market-driven private sector will do when given free reign: extract every last possible drop of profit from the situation.

Grail said :

Poor drainage, poor dust control, cramped streets, insufficient parking – this is what happens when you let private industry develop suburbs.

Yeah, but remember our discussion about Crace? The consensus view seemed to be that CIC did a better job of planning the layout of the streets etc than ACTPLA.

Agreed about the NCDC, but the reality is that the NCDC had virtually unlimited funds to play with. They were able to provide the best of everything – wide roads, great drainage, massive blocks, interesting urban design, lots of open space and parks (like fitness tracks and adventure playgrounds, etc). It was virtually utopian. Today, bottom-line thinking dominates urban planning in both the public and private sectors.

The dust was all over canberra, when it rained this morning it rained dirt. I hardly thing the development of Casey is the sole cause of dust storms and raining dirt, esepecially as it has been happening for years. When it’s very winding we get blanketed in dirt from the west of NSW, perhaps some may be from the site, but then most developments are allowed to water their dirt to minimise the dust.

If you can’t hose it down, what can you do? My front yard which is also a construction site at present is 5 centimetres deep in bulldust right now. Tis life…

Call the CFMEU!

Make first home-buyers pay $20k for dust mitigation tax

Develop suburbs and roads one house at a time

Ban all development in the ACT

Get thousands of trucks to bring in something to put over the dirt after they dig it up, and thousands more to take it away when building actually starts

Get over it

amarooresident3:56 pm 31 Oct 08

It’s windy. Get over it.

This would be bad for hay fever sufferers.

Grail: The road thing is still done – additional bridge pylons for a second span are present where the GDE crosses Belconnen Way and Ginninderra Dr (not sure about the Barton Hwy, because I didn’t see that one during construction). You can also see the easement that’s been set aside for a second carriageway on Horse Park Dr.

Grail

Franklin is being developed by the government via the LDA, streets and blocks sizes are determined by the government via ACTPLA

It’s Gungahlin – it’ll never be finished. As soon as one property has green showing, the neighbour will start knockdown/rebuild and turn the neighbourhood into trash.

Bugger. I think my cynicism is showing.

VYBerlinaV8_the_one_they_all_copy2:46 pm 31 Oct 08

Typical of builders, and of development generally. Not much you can really do, other than hope they hurry up and finish your suburb!

Poor drainage, poor dust control, cramped streets, insufficient parking – this is what happens when you let private industry develop suburbs.

Remember the days of the NCDC where anytime they built a major road (such as Tuggeranong Parkway, Drakeford Drive, Monaro Highway), they’d do the preliminary work for the second carriageway? How long have the pylons been sitting there next to lake Tuggeranong waiting for a second bridge to be erected? That’s called forward planning, and is not something you’ll get while the Government engages in Urban Planning by Highest Bidder.

The people to start complaining to are your local reps, who are currently all engaged in bunfights over who gets to have what portfolio. Keep tabs on them, and don’t let them continue the demolition of Canberra’s quality of urban planning and construction standards.

They should be out with huge fire hoses spraying water all over the place to keep the dust down. If we are going to blow the water usage targets we might as well go for broke.

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