Kowen Forest to make way for Canberra's newest town centre under Liberals

The Canberra Liberals will clear Kowen Forest to establish a new town centre with 100,000 dwellings, setting up a clear choice on 19 October between their bigger Canberra and the compact city favoured by Labor and the Greens.

The Kowen Forest plan is part of a housing strategy that aims to deliver 125,000 new dwellings in the capital by 2050, when the ACT’s population is expected to hit 700,000.

The strategy was immediately welcomed by the Housing Industry Association but slammed by Labor and the Greens.

The strategy announced by Opposition Leader Elizabeth Lee at a Gungahlin construction site is a combination of the long-term town centre plan and, in the short term, accelerated land releases in suburbs such as Macnamara, Whitlam and Kenny, including more single blocks and sensible infill.

Ms Lee said this “bold and ambitious” strategy struck the right balance and offered real choice to Canberrans.

It also offers help to first-home buyers wanting house and land packages. All single residential blocks of land owned by the Suburban Land Agency in Jacka and Whitlam will be available ‘over the counter’, with 10 per cent reserved for first home buyers offered at 75 per cent of market value, subject to the standard eligibility requirements.

Ten per cent of all development will also be reserved for affordable housing.

Ms Lee said a Liberal Government would also move to develop land at Symonston, calling it a lost opportunity, and continue to negotiate with the Federal Government to unlock the former CSIRO Ginninderra land for housing.

However, the proposed cross-border Parkwood development in the northwest looks unlikely under a Liberal Government, with Ms Lee refusing to say if she supported it.

While the Liberals are looking east to provide a long-term housing pipeline for the ACT, they will abandon investigations on the western edge due to its ecological sensitivity and farmland.

But they will proceed with a feasibility study of land west of the Murrumbidgee in Tuggeranong, which the government deems too sensitive to develop.

Ms Lee said the Liberals would also fast-track the Canberra Racing Club’s proposed housing development at Thoroughbred Park.

She has also listened to the property industry on the government’s dual occupancy policy limiting a second home to 120 square metres, promising to scrap the “arbitrary” limit and allow separately titled dual occupancies on eligible RZ1 blocks larger than 800sqm to maximise land use in suburban zones.

This has had a poor take-up, with the industry saying 120 sqm is too small for new projects to be viable.

Ms Lee has also committed to reviewing the lease variation charge.

The Liberals will also promote mixed-use residential development in CZ2 and CZ3 retail precincts and trades areas such as Phillip to encourage residential development in established commercial centres.

“This is a good combination, a good balance in making sure we’re delivering to the Canberra market what they need and what they want,” Ms Lee said.

“And that is a combination of high-rise apartments like the ones we see here [in Gungahlin], as well as townhouses and, of course, the single dwellings that we know Canberrans want.”

Ms Lee said the strategy would also be a boon for the ACT’s bottom line with land sales expected to bring in about $900 million in the first term of a Liberal government.

Ms Lee would not say when Kowen Forest would be developed and brushed off questions about urban sprawl and the cost of developing a new town centre some 30 km from the city centre.

She said the site was about the same distance as many of the suburbs in Tuggeranong from the city centre, and the development cost would be offset through a combination of land sales and revenue from rates, levies and land tax.

“The best thing about starting a district centre or a town centre from scratch is that we do have at our disposal the time to plan out what is going to work best for the community,” she said.

“That is going to take into consideration public transport access, that is going to take into consideration sewage, electricity, community services including health, education and recreation as well as, of course, a mixture of housing options to deliver that genuine choice that Canberrans need.”

Ms Lee said Kowen Forest was not ecologically sensitive but two nearby nature parks would be preserved.

She was confident that the engineering challenges to do with access to the area could be overcome.

Planning Minister Chris Steel said Labor already had a plan to deliver 30,000 new homes by 2030 in areas such as Molonglo Valley and within the existing urban footprint, including missing middle housing to be through planning changes in the next term.

“The Canberra Liberals have announced a plan for 25 years’ time that won’t deliver any new housing that we need right now and would develop a disconnected suburb that really requires quite significant work on utilities, a massive investment in new transport infrastructure, and that is completely reliant on New South Wales,” he said.

Mr Steel said the Canberra Liberals could not explain how they would bring those land releases in new suburbs forward.

“They’re already in the program, which sets out over 21,000 new dwellings that would be supported in the next five years,” Mr Steel said.

“We need to undertake more housing development within the existing urban footprint. Canberra is a very spread out place, and we can’t continue to sprawl out into the nature reserves or into areas like Kowen that are used by the community for recreation and have quite significant environmental significance.”

However, Labor would continue investigations on the western edge.

ACT Greens candidate for Ginninderra Jo Clay said developing a new town centre there and providing services and transport connections would be costly.

“Building on the outskirts of the city is expensive and it isolates people, making it difficult for them to access work, health, education and community services,” she said.

“It’s also really expensive to build new greenfields suburbs – it costs up to $60,000 more per dwelling because the government has to build new roads, sewerage and services for the new suburbs.

“How do they expect people to get to this new suburb? And at what cost? How are all these people going to get to work or to essential services like healthcare?”

ACT Greens Deputy Leader Rebecca Vassarotti also attacked the Liberals for leaving open the possibility of developing West Tuggeranong.

HIA Greg Wellers said Kowen Forest was a good solution and welcomed a long-term pipeline of land that would take the pressure off Canberrans who feel like every land sale will be the last.

“The ACT has to accept that the current approach to planning is pushing families into surrounding developments in NSW,” he said.

“We continue to support increasing density within the city’s existing footprint and have long said that the discussion shouldn’t be one or the other regarding infill or greenfield.”