The East Basin Urban Renewal Plan area including Hume Circle
“It emerged that the NCA had been having private meetings since September 2023 with developers with property interests in the affected area and the NCA’s proposal reflected the developers’ ambitions for high-density residential development,” writes RICHARD JOHNSTON.
Without warning, on January 5 the National Capital Authority released a draft amendment proposing rings of up to 15-storey buildings around the Hume Circle roundabout in the inner south.
Richard Johnston.
Since then it has emerged that the NCA had been having private meetings since September 2023 with developers with property interests in the affected area of Fyshwick.
The NCA’s proposal reflects the developers’ ambitions for high-density residential development.
Hume Circle is a heavily trafficked roundabout on the road between inner south Canberra and Queanbeyan, just west of Fyshwick Markets.
It’s shown in the National Capital Authority (NCA)’s 2004 strategy “The Griffin Legacy” as a small part of the “Principal Urban Improvement Areas” south-east of Lake Burley Griffin incorporating the Kingston Foreshore and the “East Basin Urban Renewal Area”, none of which is currently included in the National Capital Plan as “designated area” and therefore not under the planning control of the NCA.
The NCA’s National Capital Plan (NCP) Draft Amendment No.102 – Hume Circle Precinct, proposes to make this a “designated area”.
The stated purpose of this draft amendment was “to enable the renewal of an existing urban area in a manner consistent with the Griffins’ Plan for Canberra and to improve housing supply supporting the national agenda”.
Following about 100 submissions, mainly opposing the draft amendment, the NCA made some modifications to maximum building heights and submitted a final version to the federal Minister for Regional Development, Local Government and Territories, who approved it.
ACT independent senator David Pocock was subsequently able to get the Joint Standing Committee on the National Capital and External Territories to conduct an inquiry and public hearings occurred on September 11.
The NCA has completely failed to show that Amendment 102 meets the critical test under its act, that designated areas must “have the special characteristics of the National Capital”. The draft amendment said the relevant factors are:
1. (whether the area contains) “national functions” and “activities”;
2. “The Griffins’ strong symbolic design for Canberra Central”; 3. “Canberra’s landscape setting and layout…have given the capital a garden city image of national and international significance”.
Clearly this proposal fails to contribute to 1 and 3.
The 1918 Griffin Plan did show Hume Circle, but it was to be a mixed-uses activity hub, with an underground railway station and associated commercial activities, surrounded by relatively low-rise terraced buildings.
Emeritus professor James Weirick, an acknowledged Griffin expert, described the NCA proposal as “a caricature of the Griffin concept”.
The NCA proposal also ignores the planning work carried out in this area over many years by the Territory Planning Authority (TPA), in close collaboration with the community, culminating in the East Lake Place Plan 2024.
That plan included the north-eastern part of Hume Circle as the Mildura Street Precinct, about which it said: “Mildura Street will become a valued hub of employment, business, innovation, education and community service”. Residential was not specifically included.
On the other hand, Amendment 102 contains a long list of 33 “permitted land uses”, including office and retail as well as residential, so the area could possibly be used as the location for a major new shopping centre or offices rather than residential.
The TPA pointed out in a critical submission it made on the draft amendment that the NCA’s high-density residential proposal would potentially double the residential population in the area, over and above the several thousand new dwellings already proposed for East Lake, and would require the provision of greatly increased community facilities as well as exacerbate the traffic problems at Hume Circle and other infrastructure issues.
The NCA noted in its “Consultation Report” that the ACT Government has “been considering traffic and transport improvements at the Hume Circle roundabout”, but they apparently saw no reason to wait for the completion of that work.
Clearly the planning issues in this area, including East Lake, are complex and need to be considered over the whole area in a very integrated way, rather than the NCA seeking to take over the planning of a small but critical part of the area, apparently at the behest of and to the considerable benefit of a group of developers, and creating great concern for the local community.
Richard Johnston (Life Fellow Planning Institute of Australia) is president of the Kingston & Barton Residents Group and deputy chair of the Inner South Canberra Community Council.
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