Lawson to go medium density

Deref said :

Will this be another Gungahlin-like urban desert or will the streets be planted with full-sized trees?

I’m guessing that full sized trees cost probably thousands of dollars to dig out of the ground and relocate, so no, not when you can plant a sapling for tens of dollars.

Will this be another Gungahlin-like urban desert or will the streets be planted with full-sized trees?

Just to be clear, this is the location of Lawson, with the medium density areas confined to the western side of the suburb. My guess is that the majority of the medium density development will be approximately 2km walk from Westfield, which is not exactly at the heart of the town centre.

It is probably a reasonable compromise if you consider that the suburbs less than 2km to the town centre are primarily established low density suburbs. I think everyone can guess what would happen if the government decided to allow 6 story developments in the likes of Florey/Weetangera/Macquarie.

This qualifies as city centre now??

Smoking crack.

arescarti42 said :

Seems like a good idea to me, around the town centres and city is where medium density developments should be going. Now lets just hope they throw in frequent bus services to service the area.

I agree, medium density infill should be happening in town centres – unfortunately this development is almost three kilometres from Belconnen. Furthermore if the development is made up of predominantly medium-density, “affordable” housing then I will slate it right now as Emu Ridge 2, bought up by real estate speculators and rented out as residences for UC students.

How interesting and no surprise, in the wake of Andrew Barr’s attempt to wedge the Canberra community, that a public servant and not an ACT politician has been trundled forward to deliver this suburban infill news.

Barr stumbled badly this morning on ABC 666 when asked about why he dismissed Walter Burley Griffin as a dead old fogey. He didn’t even know the background to the Griffin story, that Griffin’s original plans for a lively Canberra were hijacked and altered by the bureaucrats. Then he tried to duckshove the issue home to Charles Landry, the “creative cities” consultant called in in an attempt to disguise our trashy “grabbit and run” developers as a part of Canberra’s citizen push for a sustainable future.

When asked why he had stacked the community meeting last week, he tried to dismiss the question as an affront to democracy and a citizen voice.

Starting to sound nervous, Barr then started to go on about housing affordability and said that young people want urban infill, and they all want to live in the inner suburbs. What he has missed, is that young people are design-aware and want high-quality, aesthetically interesting and functional apartments. e.g. the older, cheap developments in Kingston are not in favour with young aspirationals.

This arrogant and out-of-touch government had better start committing to the community and the environment rather than short-term revenue from developments (because that short-term revenue is what the ACT Government is actually interested in; this nasty rhetoric of Barr’s actually has nothing to do with planning and design, or Canberra’s future. It is all about saving the ACT budget and securing another term in government, and leaving the inner-suburb residents to pick up the collateral damage over decades)

I expect the community will galvanise on this issue, and interest groups such as environmentalists will find valid common ground with the supposed “young infill wishers” and fight bad planning and bad low-cost housing.

In no great city in the world is there crap housing at the heart. Good cities have expensive and desirable centres that people aspire to. Canberra’s challenge is to substitute “expensive” with “sustainable” desirability. So far, the ACT Government, despite its expensive 2030 consultation, has come up way short.

But it already was medium density until they killed all the skippies!

Seems like a good idea to me, around the town centres and city is where medium density developments should be going. Now lets just hope they throw in frequent bus services to service the area.