4 June 2010

Terrace housing for Kingston?

| johnboy
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[First filed: Jun 3, 2010 @ 9:13]


[ACTPLA Promo video for the consultation]

The ABC has a moderately confusing piece on plans for the East Lake development in Kingston:

Neil Savery from the ACT Planning and Land Authority says the plan includes a minimum of 42 per cent being individually owned, low-rise housing on single lots.

“[It will] still be relatively high density but more along the lines of terrace style development at one and two storeys as opposed to six and eight storey apartment style buildings,” he said.

“There will still be some elements of those buildings probably not as tall as eight stories.”

Land release is expected in two years time.

UPDATE: In the Canberra Times Australian National University’s Fenner School of Environment and Society visiting fellow Professor Patrick Troy is not impressed by putting this style of development out at the edge of a city:

He said he doubted mews-style streets would be appropriate for a suburb like East Lake because pedestrians would be too far from city action.

”I find that stuff really rather too cute by half when they do that on a greenfields site and it’s not only a greenfields site it’s actually a greenfield which is out on the edge and away from everything,”

ACTPLA also have a lot of information about their plans including another consultation from 3-8pm today at the Eastlake Football Club, McDonald Room 3 Oxley St Griffith.

The promo video (above) is also worth looking at if you want to get a feel for what’s planned.

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But what is the point of making one suburb great for walking and cycling, if they still have to cycle over Canberra Ave and Kings Ave bridge and those scary roundabouts etc to get to Russell, Manuka etc.

Anyway – how will it work exactly. Thin roads doesn’t automatically mean noone will drive (or is there actually no vehicle access)? It msay just mean pedestrians and cyclists competing for space on the tiny roads with a normal amount of cars. and will it mean no buses, like those tiny paved roads in dunlop and ngunnawal?

Just watched Stateline about the problems that are endemic in the ACT building industry. Much of the fault rests fairly and squarely on ACTPLA and it’s (totally failed) outsourced certification process.

Who could ever trust ACTPLA to get this right?

You sound like a town planner or real estate agent talking it up. If I want to work in Civic, i’ll live in Braddon

Pandy said :

So they are challenging the car owner and user by saying get on your bike as it is only 5.7kms to Civic and our streets will be green coloured. And they say that 35% of residents will walk to work. Where is work ACTPLA? Civic? You gotta be dreaming!
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A lot of that suburb is a very easy cycling distance (2-4km) from Barton, Fyshwick, Russel, Manuka and Kingston, the former three are pretty major employment districts, and the latter 2 are pretty major cafe type districts.

Sure, not a particularly easy walking distance, but i seem to recall they want to put 8000 people there, which makes it large enough to support restaurants, supermarkets, cafes etc. within the suburb.

So they are challenging the car owner and user by saying get on your bike as it is only 5.7kms to Civic and our streets will be green coloured. And they say that 35% of residents will walk to work. Where is work ACTPLA? Civic? You gotta be dreaming!

And what happens to the railway museum? I bet land is polluted, not least of which it was built on a rubbish dump.

He means out on the edge by itself. Walkability is great if there is somewhere to go, but if all you can do is circle your own suburb, or walk to the scenic Canberra ave, the what is the point. People need to be able to walk to shops and cafes for this to work.

If Kingston is “out of the edge and away from everything” what is Tuggeranong, Woden, Gungahlin?
Comparitive streets in inner suburbs of other states are lined with terrace housing. It provides a much nicer, more character-rich environment as everyone eventually will bring their own character to the frontage. Much more appealing than row after row of sterile appartment complexes.
However, ACTPLA is not capable – proof is in the last 5 years of development – their goal seems to bring the developers in where the most money can be made, and then provide no planning for the infrastructure of the area – gold ACTPLA gold.

This is a load of bullshit from ACTPLA. There have been many opportunities for all these feel-good principles to be inculcated in development projects, and in every case they’ve failed miserably.

One example is the Woden Town Centre Master Plan, where during the consultation phase of the plan, two major developments (one the demolition of a building, the other the ugly hi-rise that dominates the skyline) were both approved by ACTPLA. The only componentes of the master plan that have gone anywhere are the developments. None of the social aspects have evr seen the light of day. One example is the replacement for the Woden Interchange.

Other examples abound – the crammed in suburbs of Gungahlin, the shoddy building work at Kingston Foreshores, etc, where the Minister (Barr and before him Corbell), the LDA and ACTPLA, all espoused these wonderful principles.

Like the problems with many Rudd-led policies that sound good, it is all in the implementation.

Who believes that ACTPLA is capable of successfully leading this project? If you do, go and have a look at the ballsups (search RA) that they’ve been involved with over the years, as both ACTPLA, and PALM before that.

“it’s not only a greenfields site it’s actually a greenfield which is out on the edge and away from everything”

I find it hard to respect the views of a man who thinks that Kingston is “out on the edge and away from everything”.

It is also worth noting that Pat Troy’s ideological alignment is firmly anti urban consolidation, against increasing density, and very much pro car and pro-suburban sprawl. Don’t take his opinion as a balanced analysis of the development.

Although I’m not convinced that putting an artificial cap on high rise developments in East Lake is such a good idea, mixed apartments and terraced housing seems like a pretty good idea to me.

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