Ainslie residents are calling for a Legislative Assembly committee inquiry into a rezoning proposal for high-rise residential and commercial development at the Ainslie Football Club site on Wakefield Street, Ainslie.
Local resident Barbara Livesey told ABC Canberra on Monday morning, the proposed rezoning would give the Ainslie Football Club “a blank cheque to develop a large area for commercial and high-density development”.
“We are asking for greater scrutiny of things like these major development proposals where you are going to significantly change an area from recreational use into high-density housing and commercial uses,” she told the ABC.
“We don’t want to give them a blank cheque we want to have some limits on heights.
“We think Ainslie is more suited to mid-density development and have the high-density development closer to the traffic corridor of Northbourne Avenue. Rather than living in your house and having seven-storey apartments next door.”
Ms Livesey said residents have launched an e-petition with the support of ACT Greens leader and MLA Shane Rattenbury “so we can really scrutinise what is proposed here”.
She said the collection of paper signatures on the rezoning in the lead-up to the e-petition had shown most Ainslie residents had not heard about the proposed changes.
“We are not anti-development or NIMBYs. What we are is BIMBYs which is ‘Better In My Backyard’. We want to see infill done well and in a way that maintains what we love about Canberra.”
She said residents having their say had had a positive influence on development proposals in other Canberra suburbs such as Curtain.
She believes a full public inquiry by the ACT Legislative Assembly’s Standing Committee on Environment, Planning, Transport and City Services, including public hearings, would give the Ainslie and wider community the opportunity to have their say.
“It is up to us to be in there and trying to influence and have our say. It is our community and we need the opportunity to get in there and make sure we are getting good design and good housing.
The Ainslie Football Club rezoning proposal includes the construction of at least 200 apartments in seven-storey towers, 35 terrace houses, an 80-room hotel, shops, and a new social club building. An already approved childcare centre at the site would still go ahead.
This is one of the first examples under the new ACT Territory Plan where a proponent or developer is proposing the rezoning of an area of land. This new process appears to hand responsibility for important planning roles to developers – which is not in the interest of communities.
Over a 145 people and groups responded to the proposal as part of a short consultation process run by the ACT Government over the Christmas holiday period.
Most of the submissions, over 80 per cent, opposed the rezoning from what is now PRZ2 sport and recreation land to high-density residential (RZ5) and commercial (CZ6) uses. In their submissions, local residents and groups supported residential development but raised objections to the rezoning including the:
- high-density CZ5 and RZ5 rezoning – being too high and dense for this location
- impact on the Garden City character and suburban amenity of Ainslie
- over-the-top bulk and scale of the proposed buildings
- significant increases to traffic and on-street parking
- loss of valuable sport, recreation, parkland, trees and open green space in our community
- added stress on local community infrastructure such as schools
- noise, light pollution and contamination issues.
Go to ACT Legislative Assembly’s e-petitions to view and sign the petition so residents can have a say on development in our community.
See more information and view public submissions on the Ainslie Football Club proposal.
The proposed site is at the corner of Wakefield and Angus Streets and Limestone Avenue, Ainslie.