The Executive Director of the Property Council of Australia (ACT), Catherine Carter, said today that the Property Council will continue to work with the ACT Government to develop strategies to revitalise Civic.
This follows an announcement by the ACT Planning Minister, Simon Corbell, reported in today’s Canberra Times (December 14), that the ACT Government has now formally considered the recommendations of the Canberra Central Task Force and is to shortly unveil its long-term vision for the city centre, focusing on the redevelopment of land inside London Circuit surrounding City Hill.
Ms Carter said that the Property Council, as one of the leading advocates of calls to renew the city centre, accepts the Government’s view that there must be a controlled, market determined release of land.
“We also want to make sure that there’s an ongoing commitment by Government to this very important development for the city, and that it’s done in an orderly and controlled way,” Ms Carter said.
“We are however very disappointed with the Government’s decision not to establish a separate statutory authority to focus on the renewal project.
“History has shown that the delivery of large scale urban renewal projects both in Australia and around the world, are most successfully managed by dedicated statutory authorities, or renewal corporations. The Melbourne Docklands Authority is a best practice example. Renewal corporations are given sole responsibility for driving multi-dimensional urban projects involving substantial reconstruction of buildings, roads and infrastructure, and can operate at arms length from government.
“We therefore renew our calls to the ACT Government to commit to establishing a single purpose, single focus statutory authority, to concentrate on this very important project.”
Ms Carter said the Property Council will also be calling on the ACT Government to develop a flexible, performance based masterplan and implementation program for Civic.
“The masterplan should be conceived within the greater Civic context and allow developer flexibility within performance-based quality principles to achieve the investment, activity, refurbishment and re-use that is needed in Civic.
“We will also continue to work closely with the ACT Government to find acceptable solutions to the issue of car parking in Civic,” Ms Carter said.
Contact:
Catherine Carter, Executive Director, 02 6248 6902 or 0412 330 079
