climateXchange

At a community forum on 30 March 2010, the ACT Planning and Land Authority and consultants SGS Economics and Planning gave an overview of proposals for East Lake development. The targets of the development are:

• 4000 dwellings (about 9000 people)
• 2000 additional jobs
• A zero carbon development
• Address peak oil and land supply issues, and ageing/changing population demographics

They presented four different options for development of East Lake:

• A baseline "business as usual scheme" that would rely on a high proportion of mid-rise apartments (average 4 storeys), similar to Kingston Foreshore. In the following discussion, it was clear that members of the community were not keen to replicate the Kingston Foreshore development approach
• Idea 1 – that would increase the amount of single lot (residential blocks), mainly row housing, to 20%
• Idea 2 – that would introduce a more diverse housing mix, reducing the amount of apartments to 65%, and including row housing and "compact" housing on small blocks
• Idea 3 – that would increase the amount of single lot housing to 42% and incorporate a diverse housing mix of row housing, compact lots and "mews" housing types. It was indicated that this option would lead to the lowest energy use, although the upfront cost of infrastructure would be higher.

Ideas 2 and 3 both integrate water sensitive urban design into street design and the interface with the adjacent wetlands.

Following the presentations, there was discussion about a number of issues, including transport implications, the need for appropriate solar orientation of new dwellings, impact on current residents in the Causeway, how contaminated land will be dealt with, and protection of the wetlands from adverse impacts.

A community reference group will be set up to facilitate ongoing community consultation.

You can find more details about the various options at:

http://www.actpla.act.gov.au/t…..an_renewal

There was a follow-up East Lake community consultation today.  The preferred design that seems to be based on Idea 3 was on display. It looks quite good generally.

However, it is worrying that there is a proposed row of apartment buildings at the interface between the East Lake development and the Wetlands. The apartment buildings would curve around what appears to be a large section of that interface, and could end up dominating that landscape, depending on their height. The consultants mentioned they thought these buildings would be 3-4 storeys, but what if they end up being higher?