ACT Planning Table Talk – first responses

A small group of us met to discuss how we could respond to Mick Gentleman’s questions.

Our first meeting generated interesting discussion and debate and we proposed, as an initial working draft, the following points:

1.
Requirement of a broad mix of housing types and adaptive housing for future needs.
Disability and aged housing requirements to ensure a social mix.
Open thoroughfares in and through building spaces, not enclosed, exclusive environments. (Axis apartments was noted as a case in point, in contrast to the public spaces in the recent Braddon apartment developments).
Developments be inclusive of retail, restaurant and other public areas to encourage visitation and liveliness.
Open Space to be regarded as a valuable community asset.
No encroachment on Open Space.
A developer contribution should be levied for upkeep and enhancement of adjacent, or nearby, Open Space.

2.
More liberal design parameters to encourage more exciting buildings and facades.
Territory Plan firm guidelines for green, efficient and solar passive buildings.
Allowance for design flexibility set on a basic set of parameters which accord to green building design.

3.
That planning intent statements incorporate a building lifecycle, not a public office term, and that they provide surety by being in place for 20, 30 or 40 years, not 3-5 years as proposed.
Territory Plan incorporates making inviolate certain principles regarding the current viable used open spaces, the preservation of character and design of suburbs based on measured, validated evidence driven assessments.
Encouragement for ‘pop-up’ retailers and accessibility for a broader range of users.
Broader precinct design across urban landscapes (i.e. not just in Group Centres, or on Light Rail lines) to encourage movement through the landscape and increased use of walkways, cycle paths and Public Open Space.

That’s a brief list of ideas congealed from a few interested folk in just on one hour. We do encourage your attendance at the next ‘Table Talk’ meetings before our opportunity to respond closes. All ideas and thoughts are welcome and valid.

Stay tuned for the next event, very soon. Sign up to become a member of LCA, or just get on our mailing list.

 

4 Comments

  1. Mark cogleys

    Sorry about not coming to the meeting last week I personally did not have a problem with the extended car park but do with the school encroaching on or surrounding open public land and directly affecting brig allow still and indirectly the rest of lyneham.please include me in all further discussions related to this issue or anything simular. Yours Mark cogley

  2. Yvonne Hopkins

    I like and agree with the intent of the ideas listed. I would also like to see Mr Gentleman include consideration of developing community playgrounds and covered bbq areas on open space in the inner north instead of signing open space areas over to private entities or developers. With the increasing amount of mid-high density housing replacing tradional houses with yards there is shrinking space for families to have quality time outdoors In Lyneham. There is nothing of similar standard available for families of the inner north such as exist in Tuggernong, Gordon or Lake Gininderra etc. Families with kids in Lyneham have two small playsets, both located alongside a drain in Lyneham and nearby O’Connor and no toilet or bbq facilities, nor is there any shade.
    Regards,
    YLH

    1. Chair

      Hello Yvonne and welcome,
      the whole community playgrounds ‘issue’ is very vexed.

      Across the ACT access to playgrounds was severely curtailed when schools began to be fenced off, which, to my mind, created another form of prison system. The fencing off of schools, done to minimise vandalism, which to great extent worked, had many, presumably, unintended consequences like denying access to school playground facilities for the general community.

      In our local area I have been told by people at Brindabella College, as one example, that some kids, on increasingly rare occasions, climb the fence to access the basketball areas and I know from personal experience that kids stand forlornly looking into the Lyneham Primary School playground area and asking desperate parents & grandparents why they can’t go in to play.

      I am not up with the current criteria for the placement of playgrounds but gather it has changed from having a playground within a certain distance from every household to providing playgrounds for a given population number. I will attempt to find out from someone who might know what the current criteria are.

      Public open space and encroachment on is set to become a major issue in the very near future and the fallout from the public response will be interesting vista of fireworks to watch

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