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Canberra Today 13°/17° | Saturday, March 30, 2024 | Digital Edition | Crossword & Sudoku

Yarralumla residents up in arms about the brickworks redevelopment

brickworks site

THE Yarralumla Residents Association has expressed displeasure with nearly every aspect of the proposed redevelopment of the old brickworks site.

“This is a very poorly planned development that will have a massive impact on the entire traffic corridor from Molonglo, Weston Creek and Woden to the city,” said Marea Fatseas, President of the Yarralumla Residents Association.

“The focus of the Land Development Agency is to maximize revenue from land sales in this development, and there is a complete lack of integrated transport planning. Earlier plans for an overpass from Cotter Road to West Deakin have been shelved, so all traffic travelling between Cotter Road and West Deakin will either have to go through the new Yarralumla residential area, or take detours through Curtin or other parts of Deakin”.

At a packed community meeting on 3 June 2014, attended by local members Shane Rattenbury and Steve Doszpot, residents expressed concern not only about traffic implications, but also about the density and lack of planning for community facilities and services for the proposed development. This will place incredible pressures on existing facilities. There will be impacts on infrastructure such as stormwater and sewerage, which are already straining under existing population pressures.

Residents also demanded to know more about the proposed approach to removing and dealing with asbestos and other contamination at the Brickworks and environs, and the implications for health and safety of current and future residents.

Residents see this development as a land grab that completely disregards the original justification for the land development, which was to pay for the conservation and adaptive reuse of the heritage-listed icon, the Canberra Brickworks.

On some rough estimates, the value of the land to be sold may be in the range of $120-160 million. Yet only $1.5 million has been set aside for “making safe” the Brickworks, and inexplicably, a higher amount of $10 million for a Quarry Park. No funds are being set aside for future adaptive reuse of the Brickworks site itself.

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Thank you,

Ian Meikle, editor

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