A major element of the ACT Government’s ACT Planning System Review and Reform Project was the drafting of a new Planning Act. This is a very substantial legal document (over 700 pages) which was published for comment over the period 16 March to 15 June 2022. The GCC’s response (also on the YourSay consultaton page) was based on our experiences advocating for improved outcomes in the Gungahlin Town Centre.

ACT Planning System Review and Reform Project – Draft Planning Bill

The Gungahlin Community Council (GCC) agrees that ACT Planning System needs reform.

For more than five years (starting in December 2016) the GCC has advocated for changes to the ACT Planning System to ensure that the Gungahlin Town Centre meets the expectations of Gungahlin residents. The GCC has learned that the current Planning System cannot be trusted to “do the right thing” and that community-initiated changes to the System are extremely difficult. We have also learned that for Planning to be effective it needs to be enforced when it’s implemented in the real (commercial) world.

The GCC had hoped the Reformed Planning System would identify, enshrine, and defend the needs and interests of the community against the expertise, resources and commercial intent of the development industry, and (potential) short-term decision making by government. Further, to restore trust, we hoped the process of reform would be collaborative, allowing the community to understand and be part of the change, rather than being a victim of it – “Building trust in the Planning system should be a priority” (Stakeholder Series Report) was . Unfortunately, despite a promising start (the Community Engagement Workshops in May 2019), this is not how the reform has unfolded to date, with most “consultation” taking the form of notification.

The consultation currently being undertaken on the new Planning Bill is consistent with our concerns. Many hundreds of pages of draft legislation have been provided, along with an Overview document and a series of Fact Sheets. A very high level of assumed knowledge is required to be able to consider the material provided and it’s clear that any stakeholder that might wish to respond to the consultation would need a strong background and/or expertise in ACT legislation and planning to do so.

The Planning Bill is almost impossible for the average citizen to comprehend, and no serious attempt has been made by the Directorate to make it “relevant” to the general public. The Planning Bill has been presented without the new Territory Plan or District Strategies which might have made it clear “what goes where” and “how things will work”. It may also have helped if “Further detail on the proposed approach to detailed structure and content will be provided during the public consultation period” (from Planning Bill Policy Overview) had been actioned; unfortunately, this detail has not been forthcoming.

The GCC lacks the legislative and planning expertise that many of the other Community Councils have access too, and consequently our feedback and recommendations are quite high level. We encourage the government to place significant weight on the feedback from all Community Councils, all of whom place the interests of the residents of Canberra first.

Specifically, the GCC does not support:

1. The removal of Pre-DA consultation – If the Planning Directorate is of the view that Pre-DA Consultation is ineffective it needs to be fixed. Pre-DA consultation has proven to lead to better outcomes in several instances in Gungahlin and is consistent with the goal of ensuring that engagement is early and informed.
2. The notion that the Principles of Good Consultation are at the whim of the Minister – These principles should be a mandatory part of the act and genuinely co-developed with the community and industry (not proposed for comment).
3. The suggestion that the compliance and enforcement powers are fit for purpose and comprehensive – In the past decade there have been several compliance issues in Gungahlin and there is widespread community perception that there is little enforcement and what there is has little impact or consequence on the infringing proponents

The GCC recommends that the ACT Government:

• Fund an independent review of the proposed Planning Bill by an external (non-ACT government) legal counsel to validate the objectives of the Bill are correctly and validly drafted.
• Take up the offer from the Chair of the Legislative Assembly’s Planning Committee to provide additional scrutiny of the Planning Bill and/or Reform, ideally through an Inquiry.
• To build trust in the Reform process going forward, establish a substantive panel of relevant community and industry stakeholders that are given the necessary training to interpret the Planning Bill (and the Reform more broadly), and to genuinely contribute to the co-development of the new Territory Plan and District Strategies.
• To build trust in the District Strategies, fund a representative group for each District group/forum to inform and oversee the development and implementation of the District Strategies. Such a group might include relevant MLA’s, representatives from different community sectors (eg. Business, Sporting, Aged, Youth) and community representatives, perhaps chosen by ballot from interested volunteer candidates.
• Provide specific examples of how “outcomes based” works when compared to the current Planning System.
• Work with the Gungahlin community to explore how the recommendations from the consultancy on mixed-use planning might be implemented in the new Territory Plan and/or Gungahlin District Strategy.

On 19 April 2022 the ACT Government released the Community and Recreational Facilities Assessment—Gungahlin District. The contract for this work was signed in December 2020 (as reported by the RiotACT), and is part of a range of activities regarding Commmunity Facilities in Gungahlin including the

• Gungahlin community centre,
• Casey land release, and
• Future planning.

The report highlights the chronic lack of facilities in Gungahlin – an issue raised frequently by the GCC. Of the 28 types of community facility identified in the asessment, 57% (16) are either not meeting demand (9) or require further investigation regarding demand (7) (over the period being considered, ie. out to 2045). It should be noted that some of the analysis could be improved, but the assessment is very important because:

This report will inform further consultation, identification of priorities, and decision making by the ACT Government on a range of community and recreational facilities.

The report reviews all the previous studies done in this space (7 of them, going back to 1998!) which higlights that many of the needs (indoor sports, youth centre, aged cared, community halls/meeting spaces) have been well known for some time. It also introduces some benchmarks for facilities which can be applied more broadly across Canberra.

The conclusion from the executive summary states:

Additional community and recreational facilities that may require further investigation for provision in Gungahlin include:

• • Public primary schools and public colleges
  • Community centres and neighbourhood halls – which could be delivered as part of the proposed community centre in the Gungahlin Town Centre
  • Flexible meeting rooms/spaces – which ideally would be co-located with the proposed community centre or co-located with other facilities
  • Residential aged care facilities and places and aged day care centre (respite)
  • Dedicated arts space – potentially part of the proposed community centre
  • Dedicated space for youth activities and programs – potentially part of the proposed community centre
  • An indoor sports court centre
  • Outdoor sports courts facilities – additional courts that can be used for netball/basketball (noting that these have different size requirements).

The summary table from the report is included below.

The GCC would very much like your feedback on this report – what’s right, what’s wrong, what’s been missed. Respond below or email us.

Download (PDF, 203KB)

NBN Technology Deployment in southern parts of Casey, Gungahlin; FTTP (purple), FTTN (yellow) – Source: http://nbnmtm.australiaeast.cloudapp.azure.com/

In January 2021 the Combined Community Councils of the ACT launched a campaign to secure a portion of NBN’s $4.5B FTTN upgrade program for Canberra. This led to 10 suburbs in south and inner north Canberra being added to this program in May 2021 (Canberra suburbs to be upgraded to faster internet).

The GCC subsequently asked the NBN whether Casey Stage 1 could also be included in this program and were told that it was; this was announced in a GCC Facebook post on 5 July 2021 (and shared to the Casey Facebook group on the same day). The post stated that the NBN:

“can confirm the part of Casey that is currently not served by FTTP is on our list of suburbs that we intend to perform an FTTP-enabled upgrade in. However, as with all of the planned FTTN to FTTP-enabled upgrades, this will be subject to technical, engineering and cost factors and it is possible that for those reasons the company may not proceed with upgrading those parts of Casey. At this stage, the company plans to make a final decision about upgrading those areas of Casey in late April 2022”.

The GCC has confirmed that Casey stage 1 is still scheduled to be upgraded to be FTTP-capable, and that the “field validation” remains scheduled for 1Q2023. The upgrade will take 6 months to build, assuming the validation passes, and once complete upgrades to FTTP for homes will be triggered by residents placing orders for services of (at least) 100Mbs.

Residents in Casey Stage 1 considering paying for an NBN Technology Choice upgrade may wish to hold off until the field validation process is complete.