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Thousands sign Yarralumla planning petition

Photo by Gary Schafer
Residents brave the morning cold to present their petition. Photo by Gary Schafer
YARRALUMLA residents gathered at the historic, but neglected Brickworks in freezing temperatures this morning to present Liberal MLA and local resident Steve Doszpot with a petition of more than 4000 signatures calling on the Government to rethink its 1600 high-density unit development plans for the area.

The member for Molonglo will  present the petition to the ACT Assembly later this week.

The petition also questions the ACT Government’s plan to just “make safe” the heritage-listed Brickworks, starving them of the funds needed to preserve them, said Marea Fatseas, president of the Yarralumla Residents Association.

Photo by Gary Schafer
MLA Steve Doszpot received the petition from Heather Ahern, left, and Marea Fatseas. Photo by Gary Schafer
“Residents are not opposed to development,” she said. “We want to work with the ACT Government, the NationalCapital Authority, relevant experts and other stakeholders to come up with a plan that is in character with the existing suburb and addresses major concerns.”

Mr Doszpot said the petition calls for the plans to be reworked to address increased traffic flow, parking issues, green space and appropriate building heights and the impact of the additional influx of 4000 residents.

“The petition is also calling for information and costs for the safe removal of asbestos and other contaminated materials and an explanation of how infrastructure could cope with truck movements,” he said.

“The ACT Labor government should go back to the drawing board and devise a sensible planning solution for Yarralumla residents concerned about proposed development in the suburb.

“The plans for development of land around the Canberra brickworks site are ill-conceived and fail to account for the future impact on residents in Yarralumla and surrounding suburbs including Deakin, Hughes and Curtin. Thousands of people have signed a petition highlighting their concerns and they deserve to be heard.”

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2 Responses to Thousands sign Yarralumla planning petition

Canberra resident says: 4 August 2014 at 1:59 pm

High density apartment infill has its place, but this part of Yarralumla does not have the attractions of inner city living and is not on the water like Kingston foreshore.
It is just crazy to want to squeeze 1600 dwellings, up to eight storeys high, into this small wooded and grassland area. Results:- road congestion, doubling of population size, infrastructure overwhelmed, removal of walking trails, environmental damage….. Bad planning, bad idea. But looks like the Greens are prepared to sacrifice Canberra’s green spaces to raise land sale funds for their light rail fantasy.

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Chris says: 4 August 2014 at 5:45 pm

I can only hope that the Yarralumla mob have more success than the residents of Reid and Braddon. The original BAC Flats redevelopment was for a limit of 10 storeys, local consultation recommended reducing this to 8 storeys but outcome was ACTPLA making an ambit claim for 15 storeys! Political intervention by our remaining Green reduced the planning height to 12 storeys after the Planning and Environment Standing Committee could not reach a conclusion. I don’t think the ACT government understands the meaning of consultation. What citizens need is ‘collaboration’ not ‘consultation’. Braddon and Reid locals have little faith in the government sticking to the stated 12 storeys after the recent BAC Flats engineering and planning services request for tender went out once again saying 15 storeys. I wonder how high they really want to go in Yarralumla?

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