29 January 2007

Land grab

| johnboy
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We knew this day would come from the minute Jon Stanhope bulldozed Andrew Barr’s promises the closed schools wouldn’t be sold to property developers.

The Canberra Times today is buttering us up for the apartment blocks to march across the playing fields.

The Housing Industry Association’s executive director for the ACT and Southern NSW, Caroline Lemezina, said yesterday that many of the sites would be ideal for affordable housing and aged-care accommodation.

“They’re good areas to develop,” she said. “We have real problems with first-home buyers being able to enter the market. We should look at affordable housing on sites, but also housing for elderly people.”

Affordable housing and aged care? How could we possibly say no? The only surprise is they left out a promise to be kind to puppies.

But look, lets get serious. It may be tempting to have the closed schools stand as a momument to the realities of the Stanhope Government, but he can’t waste ALL the money that would come from flogging off the land, and at some point the extra domiciles hitting the market has to make housing more affordable.

And if reason doesn’t float your boat think of the cute little puppies poor/elderly.

Nyssa also sent in the following as a story:

We all knew it would happen, we just assumed that the Govt would hold off for 2 seconds and assess the impact to the community before the end of 2007. It’s not to be.

Today’s CT discusses the need to sell off the land to ease the “housing crisis”.

Now when Towards 2020 came out, Mr. Barr stated the land wouldn’t be sold to developers. My how times change.

Close schools = land to develop and sell off.

However, if the land is opened up to young families, where will their children go to school as most young families prefer to live close to their child’s school as opposed to being in the next suburb?

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I bet this, plus the pay disputes, has an impact on the number of quality applicants for teaching courses in Canberra over the next few years. There seems to be no certainty in the job atm.

Since there’s only 1 school left (apparently), shouldn’t be too much of a problem then Nys…

Should be 40-80 staff per school.

miz, it’s crap. The news should get their facts right before they put it to air.

I, like your family members, have a letter dated with ACTDET letterhead for January.

Staffing in schools is still a mess – 1 1/2 weeks to organise 40-80 staff across all high schools. I’d hate to be the person organising that.

“knew” bollocks. Two family members, one primary and one high, only got word last week.

Did anyone catch the news tonight? Barr was on stating that teachers “knew” where they would be placed before Christmas (among other things).

Liar! Only primary teachers knew.

Yet another lie from this incompetant Govt.

Well said miz.

I think sometimes some places can be seduced into a superschool when a govt is going to build a brand spanking new school. Here, we just get bodgy amalgamations that are a poor social and educational fit.

The places that once endorsed superschools are realising their mistakes. Why must we in Aust always follow these crappy fads just when they are shown to be useless and sometimes even damaging? Eg, whole language, the dumping of rote learning, etc.

Gerrybuilt, superschools are an educational fad. The US in particular has gone down this road for some years and are now realising that actually the ed results are poorer and *surprise surprise* the literature shows there are what they term ‘diseconomies of scale’ they didn’t factor in when all they considered was saving money. Here’s an example of the literature http://sbw.cefpifoundation.org/pdf/DollarsSense.pdf
Also they seem to be inconsistent in that they are making some specialised early childhood schools but then want some children to be all in together from Preschool to the end of High School.
To put it another way, do you prefer large and impersonal, or medium-to-small and personalised, where they actually remember your name?

Sorry AD, wrong religion, no altar boys to wrestle, in fact not even an altar, altars get in the road when your dancing or expounding energetically.
Charity Computers also operate from there, refurbish computers and sell em super cheap.

Out of interest: can someone tell me why the “Superschools” model won’t work? – I’ve not met as great a deal of opposition to them elsewhere , i.e. other than here.

Absent Diane4:10 pm 30 Jan 07

wrestling – to practice wrestling little alter boys to the ground?

ross69 I left there in 1992.

My friend’s mother was one of the first students there and went to Yr 12. Apparently one year during the HSC a main burst and the Yr 12’s were photographed using brooms to push the water out of the girls locker area (one side of the canteen) as they couldn’t continue the tests with water around their ankles.

Thanks for that Nyssa i never knew that, i only went there 10 years ago (but it feels like yesterday) and even then we were pushin close to capacity.

Primary schools in the inner north have high enrolment numbers because they’re close to where lots of parents work. Now that I am forced to drive my kids to school, I will probably do the same – enrol out-of-area in a school on my route to work & childcare.

deadset thumper – they had accomodation dramas when the PCYC in Turner was shut for reno’s and so the Good Lord* stepped in to give a helping hand.

*the opinions expressed herein are not necessasarily those of the author.

And Charnwood High is a bloody Christian convention centre or something….

– they (the christians) also hire space to a local amateur (american style) wrestling company.

oops…

if it “wasn’t” a blantant grab for money.

Campbell High was a 7-12 school over 30+ years ago. The school could cater for a large population across those grades then, however; it couldn’t now as its 7-10 population is just as large.

Tempestas, families choose their housing based on several things and 2 of those being close to a school and close to childcare/pre-school.

You can’t purchase a house in those areas now as they aren’t close to either. Only those with teenagers or with one working parent would purchase said home.

It’s not as if this Govt has managed money well. I could see the rationalisation for the closure of the school and subsequent sale of land if it was a blatant grab for money.

Thank you Seepi, I completely agree. I for one moved back to the ACT (my home town) because of the green spaces interspersed with close local facilities, chiefly a school and a bus route to shops, library and other services. Seems the current govt is on a mission to demolish these key good things about Canberra, the very things that console us when the rest of the nation puts the boot in.
Frankly I think the forecast need for older persons’ accom, ie units, is vastly exaggerated, as many older persons are now staying in their own homes with community support programs. It’s just their latest excuse for stealing (rezoning) land currently zoned ‘community use’.

I read that they were having a vote at Campbell High to see if they wanted it to turn into a 7-12 school if it happened but the majority voted against it.

They did try to shut Dickson College, even tho they didn’t really have a solution for where kids from Civic and surrounds would do year 11 and 12 – quite important school years.
Funny that Dickson COllege is on a very large block of land, and land values are quite high.

So why didn’t they shut the schools in Turner, Ainslie and Campbell – could of made a motza flogging those to the developers.

Developers are there to make a profit not to build homes for people to live in. Sheesh we have such a good free market and now it is suggested we need affordable housing, that will scare even more investors away won’t it.

Where the hell is Zed Seselja, the Shadow Planning Minister? He hasn’t put out a press release in 2 months. I guess the Epicentre fiasco has worn him right out.

The super schools won’t work. They’re more like sausage factories.

It will be interesting to see the demographics of those suburbs when the new housing is built.

Then again, it was all about the land grab in the first place….

seepi’s right.

We have figures to show Melrose Primary would have been at almost 100% capacity around 2010/2011 if it had stayed open.

We also had a childcare centre wanting to lease the land until there was adjacent land available for them to buy & build their own premises. Right next door to the public pre-school that is still there. They have figures showing they feed over 20 kids per year into the public pre-school near their current premises.

I phoned YMCA today – they run kiddie gym & playschool at Melrose Primary. They are only being given 3 months lease at a time by the ACT Govt. So if the ACT Govt gets their way, we won’t even have a cheap gym for the kids within two suburbs drive…

Actually Downer Primary is the Learner Driver Centre. Watson’s still there it’s just called Majura primary now. (Well since 1989 anyway)

maelinar, said cheap apartment complex in holt is NOT still on the market.
there are no residential apartments left.
But yes, it is a dodgy development.
It’s also full of dodgy fuckers with no respect for their homes.
However, at Least ACT housing do not hold any titles for any units.

Those suburbs with ageing populations have a cycle as well. The oldies die, and the houses are bought by…ta da! Young families with children. Too bad the schools were demolished.

The govt has an obligation to provide aged care accommodation. They reason that they can kill two birds (and make a few stones in the process) if they sell the schools sites, but make the developer convert a percentage to aged care. It’s a win win win for them.

Perhaps we can have the Stanhope Bus Company transport next generations’ kids to a super schools in an (un)convenient location of their choice.

I guess they could build bare-bones apartments, with no walls and modest accoutrements – only need to go to an open home at Holt apartment complex to see a poorly constructed apartment block. Also, while you’re there note the amount of them that are still on the market.

The fact of the issue is that cheap apartments/housing will remain on the market because they are shit.

The Gummit would be better served building the basics (walls,windows, rooves) and infrastructure to the complex and then onselling it to renovators – oh, that’s right, first home buyers.

More’s the pity that the construction standards are that shite that no construction company would approach that suggestion with a bargepole on threat of being found out to be the bodgy artists they are – it’s amazing what plasterwork and gapfiller covers up…

Builders/developers will be seeking to maximise their investment by installing granite bench kitchens …

I guess they could build bare-bones apartments, with no walls and modest accoutrements, but the yuppies would probably just turn them into open-plan warehouse style.

Ingeegoodbee3:35 pm 29 Jan 07

I guess that if the land isn’t going to be used for a school it would be rather churlish to argue that it shouldn’t be used for anything else – potential other uses and consideration of the deferred opportunity cost whould probably be the best way of figuring out what to do with the land.

Previously closed schools are not derelict
Pearce is a community centre
Watson is the learner driver centre
and Hackett is a community school.

Of course the land will (must) be flogged off. More apartments…if there is a demand, why not.

Anyway the closed schools will only become derelict and attract vandals and squatters.

So bring on the development!

Well said Seepi.

yes – keep the green spaces.
Who wants a city where kids grow up in apartment blocks, get driven to school 2 suburbs away and can only ‘play’ once a week at indoor gymnastics sessions that cost money.

Also – suburbs change their demographic over time. We need to retain some capacity to reopen a couple of schools if required. (Especially once they come to their senses and scrap the super-school fiasco).

Closing down surperfluous schools was one of the only sensible things that Stanhopeless has done.
There is no point letting these blocks go idle now, the best thing to do is sell them off and put them to a higher valued used (which will be housing).

VYBerlinaV8_now with_added_grunt10:27 am 29 Jan 07

Do not for a second think that any land sold for the purposes of building apartments/townhouses would be devoted toward budget or mid range accomodation. Builders/developers will be seeking to maximise their investment by installing granite bench kitchens, the latest aircon, marble bathrooms, etc, to justify selling the properties at the top of the market range. There is still heaps of demand for these properties, and the few extra inserted into the market via developing old school sites will make very little (or no) difference to housing affordability.

Ultimately we need to decide whether we want to live in a city with plenty of green, open spaces, or whether we should fill said space with as many luxury apartments as possible. Personally I’d prefer the open spaces. If we need more land for housing, extend the ‘edges’ of the city into the surrounding countryside (as cities have done for centuries).

“but he can’t waste ALL the money that would come from flogging off the land”

You reckon?

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