WILL 2019 be the breakthrough year for sensible planning? No other city has the unique characteristics of our national capital. And yet, we continue to see its special character undermined.

Our newest suburbs hardly reflect our status as the wealthiest jurisdiction in the wealthiest nation in the world.

Building on the original designs of Walter Burley Griffin and his wife Marion, Canberra took on its most ambitious development under Prime Minister Sir Robert Menzies. The National Capital Development Commission adopted the Y-Plan under the guidance of chief planner, Peter Harrison (after whom the suburb of Harrison is named). The Y-Plan transitioned from suburban grids and identified how the growing city could respect its status as the “bush capital”.

The vision included decentralised city centres with activity fuelled by government departments. Woden and Belconnen reflect the vision. Tuggeranong struggled and the vision was largely absent for Gungahlin. Putting working places near where people lived in a series of city centres had the potential to seriously reduce the traffic gridlock of the unidirectional commute so prevalent in other cities.

Planners, like Harrison, were thinking ahead. They placed schools and shops together and designed suburbs where walking or riding to school and the local shops encouraged physical activity. Their vision was not perfect. They did not foresee the reduction in household size, that most families would have both parents working, or the extent to which private schools would be favoured by many over the local suburban schools.

The bush capital was about a city incorporating the bush. Being at one with the bush. The Chief Minister’s new vision of a city “surrounded by bush” is simply Orwellian doublespeak. Earlier planners met the challenges of a rapidly growing population at the same time as preserving lifestyle. Those who wished to could have a backyard, space for their children and room to entertain outdoors.

There were townhouses, flats, high-density apartment buildings (like the now bulldozed ABC flats in Braddon and Reid). However, there were plenty of other options that were delivered at an affordable price (even when expectations for a first home were a humble three bedrooms and a single bathroom).

The plethora of apartments in new suburbs such as Wright and Coombs are simply overdone. How long before they provide the same challenges as the ABC flats? Pushing the boundaries on planning, squeezing more and more hot boxes on to a block of land, letting the buildings spill to within a few metres of the roads is town-planning cancer.

Predictions of around 600,000 people in Canberra by half way through this century must make planners lose sleep. Half the size of Canberra again! Concentrating tall apartment buildings in the town centres makes sense. People will be close to where they work and there will be less commuting. People in our town centres will also add vibrancy.

However, as young people start their families, Australians have overwhelmingly sought to have a suburban house and garden. This is not dissimilar, for those who can afford it, in Europe, Canada and the US.

The pressure of growth, along with the negligence of the Land Development Agency (as revealed recently in Legislative Assembly hearings) undermines good planning. The drive for builders and developers to make a greater profit by taking advantage of existing infrastructure combined with poor planning controls exacerbates the problems.

There are talented, committed, hard-working planners in the ACT seeking to build the best possible city. However, they are shackled by a government and a chief minister who seems intent on making Canberra more like the Melbourne CBD (complete with trams) and an opposition that doesn’t want to stand up to big developers. No wonder we have a problem!

What is needed is a long-term view and some lateral solutions to ensure Canberra retains its unique, incomparable characteristics. Is this really too much to expect in 2019? Is a change in approach too much to wish for this Christmas?

Michael Moore is a former member of the ACT Legislative Assembly and an independent minister for health. He has been a political columnist with “CityNews” since 2006.