Kowen Forest town centre: unsustainable urban sprawl or visionary planning?

Is the Canberra Liberals’ plan to bulldoze Kowen Forest and build a new town centre there a bit too “bold and ambitious”?

Opposition Leader Elizabeth Lee isn’t going to die wondering after this election campaign. She has thrown everything into this campaign and come out with some surprise announcements that have captured headlines and she hopes the imagination of voters.

Bold has been her byword.

Promising a stadium at the Acton Waterfront came out of the blue, as did promising a sixth town centre by 2050 for Canberra to cater for 100,000 dwellings of all types, but pointedly, from the Liberals’ perspective, the single blocks that they say Canberrans are clamouring for.

It’s a high-risk, high-reward strategy that sends the message that the Liberals are the party of big ideas and action.

With their town centre plan, the Liberals are also embracing the “vision thing” and telling voters they are thinking long-term about Canberra’s future needs.

But, like the stadium, this big idea is divisive.

The battle lines are drawn: Big Canberra or the compact city?

The national capital that the Griffins conceived was never supposed to be the sprawling, decentralised city that it has become, and the idea of spreading it even further, this time to an eastern sliver of land disconnected from the rest of the city on challenging terrain, will be hard to sell.

However, Kowen has been on the table as a potential development area in the old NCDC days before self-government.

The Kowen Forest itself is a recreation area, although Ms Lee says a pine forest doesn’t really rate in terms of biodiversity. She says the two nearby nature parks will be preserved but that may not be enough for some to say hands off.

The Liberals have turned their backs on the western edge, citing ecological sensitivities but Labor will continue investigations there. Some will argue it makes more sense to find land there if needed, that would still be attached to the urban mass and be within a reasonable distance of the city.

That comes with usual caveats about preserving bushland.

But for Labor, and the Greens in particular, the emphasis is on filling out the Molonglo Valley, Gungahlin and Ginninderry, and sustainably filling in the established suburbs, especially along transport corridors. Eventually, the Commonwealth will unlock the CSIRO Ginninderra land in Canberra’s north.

Interestingly, the government joint-venture cross-border Parkwood development is not part of Ms Lee’s plans, but West Tuggeranong, subject to a feasibility study, still is.

Greenfield development is costly, especially where the topography is difficult, and requires services and transport connections, something the Barr Government has been increasingly wary of.

But Ms Lee believes returns to the Territory through land sales, rates and taxes will more than cover these costs.

For some, the idea of adding another town centre to a Canberra they see as big enough will be anathema.

Ms Lee will need to continue to make the argument that without it, Canberra will not be able to house itself as the population grows.

A month out from election day, the Liberals now have positioned themselves as the party of change with a distinctly different vision for the future of Canberra.

Light rail curtailed, electric buses, a stadium by the lake and a new town centre by 2050.

It’s a lot for voters to take in. It may depend on just how bold they want to be.