PLANNING in the ACT remains steadfastly opaque and messy, says “Canberra Matters” columnist PAUL COSTIGAN. Here he offers three glaring examples…

Fate of Forrest heritage house remains mystery

HOUSES of heritage value often cause problems for ACT Heritage Ministers and their planning chiefs. 

The result is usually the throwing up of hands and saying something useless such as there’s not much we can do, but we will look to see if this can be avoided in the future – maybe.

This matter is now under the microscope again because there is a 1935 heritage house with an unknown future in Forrest. The house, on the corner of Arthur and Empire Circuits, was designed by Canberra’s first private architect Kenneth Oliphant. It is listed as significant 20th century architecture. It was formerly a small hospital, then a stopover for Ansett Pioneer’s long-haul coach travellers, and finally from 1952 as the Sri Lankan High Commission until March, 2012, when they moved to Yarralumla.

Since then the house has remained vacant. It is the property of the Sri Lankan government. Neighbours report that the house is deteriorating. The high commission’s website states that they are still to decide its fate. There are versions of the story that say the high commission wants to use it as a residence. It has been 10 years, and so it looks possible that its heritage value may one day be sidelined for demolition and development.

Various politicians have been approached – but nothing has happened. Last time a house with heritage value was threatened and then demolished, the ACT Heritage Minister, Rebecca Vassarotti, made worthy noises but sat on the fence and watched. What will she do this time?

Developers sidestep Gentleman’s planning fix

THE ACT planning system is opaque and inaccessible. But nothing beats this latest saga being played out in Deakin (and in other suburbs) where a block in the residential zone (RZ1) was sold and is now subject to a development application for a set of four units. 

The developer knew what the lease was and was hoping to exploit a fault in the zoning system.

Following changes around 2014, a variation to the rules was introduced by the planning bureaucrats. These rules were supposed to clarify what can and can’t be built on a RZ1 block. They somehow managed to introduce the possibility that the rules were almost unconstrained as to what could be built on blocks that previously had special lease arrangements.

This oversight was spotted by developers. With this strange twist of fate, multiple unit blocks could be built on blocks that had previously had special purpose leases in RZ1 zones – the basic residential zones throughout Canberra.

In 2018 the bureaucracy tried again to fix this with another variation – called Variation 350. All moves seemed to be heading in the right direction. The politicians were on-side for the change, the residential groups made submissions to legislative committees – it was looking as if the quirk in rules would be fixed. 

Then, at the last minute, another change was introduced to the agreed wording. Part of the initial problem was addressed, but yet another fault was left there waiting to be spotted by developers. They have! And to make matters more mysterious, no-one knows how many blocks have these questionable leases or where they are located.

Developers are on the hunt to spot blocks with these dubious leases and then to encourage a sale. They would be purchasing a single dwelling in the RZ1 zone that could have multiple units built on it. Bingo, bigger profit margins!

This is yet another mess by the ACT’s planning bureaucracy that needs urgent attention.

This development application in Deakin has brought the issue into the open. Will it be approved? Will the planning bureaucracy step in to get this fixed? Residents are waiting to see if this ACT government respects the intent of the planning processes and will fix this quickly.

Unknown fate of worthy plan on draft variation to fix greenery

SEVERAL conversations of late have centered on the question – what has happened to the much-touted Draft Variation 369? 

This was the big late 2019 announcement about new planning rules to get more trees, greenery and shade on to suburban plots, about having more porous surfaces and increasing the urban trees and the biodiversity.

These additional requirements sounded great in the announcements but the reality within the documentation was something else. It was a climate change lite approach. Definitely not serious enough for a government wanting to address climate change in urban developments. But it was a small first step and people were looking forward to it being implemented and then strengthened it as soon as possible. 

But the government is still sitting on it. It is now 2022, and it is yet to be implemented.

Meanwhile the ACT government has just announced the completion of a set of ACT Housing units in Dickson. Things are not too bad architecturally. Except where are the shade trees, the shrubbery and what about those vast areas of concrete? Not exactly porous surfaces. There will be flooding when there is a downpour or two.

This is the ongoing problem with this ACT Labor/Greens government. They say a lot, make worthy sounding announcements and boast about what they intend to do – one day – maybe. The reality is that sections such as ACT Housing operate in their own universe as if there was no push to address climate issues when they build units such as these in Dickson.

Time to treat climate change as an urgent whole-of-government matter. Over to you ACT ministers for Planning and the Environment. Try harder – you can do a lot better!