Summary

Greater Canberra is a community organisation dedicated to advocating for reforms to planning, housing, and infrastructure policies to create a more affordable, liveable, and sustainable city.

As Canberra’s population continues to grow strongly, providing well-located, high-quality housing with good transport access remains key to reducing housing costs, reducing emissions, and improving liveability. The North Curtin Residential Area presents an opportunity to provide thousands of Canberrans with housing in a central, well connected, high amenity site. As the first major urban renewal project along the Light Rail 2B corridor, it is also an opportunity to demonstrate urban design excellence, and set the scene for future regeneration projects along this route.

Greater Canberra believes higher levels of density are appropriate for the site, and strongly supports facilitation of mixed commercial and residential use, good public transport access, and integration with surrounding neighbourhoods.

1 Securing housing supply through appropriate density

Canberra needs a secure supply of new homes to meet the needs of our growing population. Building new homes within Canberra’s existing urban footprint rather than on the urban fringe delivers many benefits, including lower environmental impacts and carbon emissions, improved amenity and housing choice for residents, and lower servicing costs for government. 

Greater Canberra believes that a mix of mid-to-high density housing is appropriate for the North Curtin Residential Area. Attributes that make the site appropriate for higher densities include its: 

  • Central location, close to employment in the Inner South, City and Woden, the Curtin shops, and the Deakin commercial precinct
  • Good access to surrounding parklands, open space, and the Yarralumla Creek corridor
  • Strong potential transport links, including via nearby rapid bus routes (see Figure 2), light rail Stage 2B, and the arterial road network. 

We strongly support the ACT Government’s goal of building at least 1300 dwellings on this site. This goal could be achieved by permitting buildings of a similar scale to those which have been enabled along Northbourne Avenue under the City and Gateway Urban Design Framework, while still allowing for plentiful green space and amenities between housing units. 

We further note that reducing the number of homes planned for the development would have significant adverse consequences for housing affordability in the ACT. For instance, based upon previous findings about the relationship between housing supply and rents in the Australian housing market, halving the scale of the North Curtin residential area could increase average annual rents for Canberra renters by around $200 per year.1

Higher density housing should be accompanied by high quality green and open space within the site, and the potential for small-scale commercial uses such as cafes. The Campbell 5 precinct provides a good example of mixed use, higher density apartments (up to 9 storeys), with quality green space and strong integration with the surrounding neighbourhood. 

Recommendation 1: Plan for higher-density housing of around 9 storeys in height, consistent with the site’s central location and previous high-quality mixed-use housing precincts such as Campbell 5.

2 Creating a mixed-use precinct 

A mixed-use precinct, combining residential, commercial and community uses would be appropriate for the scale of development proposed at North Curtin. Small scale commercial and community uses such as cafes, gyms, restaurants, small grocers, child care, hairdressers, etc. could provide for the daily needs of local residents, and give residents of surrounding areas greater choice. Existing mixed use developments such as those at the Kingston Foreshore, Northbourne Avenue, and Flemington Road have improved the vibrancy, liveability and sustainability of those areas.

In addition to providing greater variety, amenity and convenience, a mixed use precinct would help reduce trips by car and support active travel by allowing services within walking distance. It is commonly accepted that most people are willing to walk around 5-10 minutes (400-800m) to access services. However, distances to North Curtin’s nearest shops at Curtin and Yarralumla (refer Figure 1) are generally greater than this. Services need to be provided at North Curtin for them to be conveniently accessible on foot.

The National Capital Plan does not presently allow for non-residential land use at North Curtin. Greater Canberra believes planning for the new precinct should include provisions for a range of uses, with this reflected in the National Capital Plan and other relevant planning documents. This could be achieved by amending the Plan to allow for higher density mixed-use development, similar to that which currently occurs in CZ5-zoned areas under the Territory Plan.

Quality public open space will be critical to the success of the precinct. Consideration should be given to how open spaces integrate with residential and mixed land uses (e.g. integration of small scale commercial with small parks or plazas) and also with open space and natural features surrounding the site, such as Yarralumla creek. Open spaces should include shade in summer and be oriented for sunlight in winter, and located to minimise noise impacts from Adelaide Avenue. 

Recommendation 2: Enable mixed-use development in North Curtin through amendments to the National Capital Plan.

3 Ensuring strong transport connections

The North Curtin Residential Area has strong potential for excellent connections to the rest of Canberra through active, public and private transport. However this potential will only be realised with careful planning and adequate investment, as despite its central location, the site presently suffers from physical isolation from surrounding transport networks. Adequate investment and planning in transport linkages is needed to reduce private vehicle usage within the suburb, along with the associated congestion, environmental and health costs. 

Active transport

Active transport within the site should be encouraged through dedicated off-road walking and cycling infrastructure, and a range of attractive destinations within walking distance (e.g. mixed use shops, attractive open spaces). The internal path network should be well connected to the existing surrounding path network such as the C4 cycleway and Yarralumla Creek shared path (refer to Figure 3) and include connections to the footpath network in Yarralumla and Deakin. 

Careful consideration will need to be given to pedestrian crossings of Yarra Glen and Cotter Road, to allow safe, direct and pleasant crossings of these high traffic, high speed roads. In the absence of a ‘Mint interchange’ across Yarra Glen (see Recommendation 5 below), consideration should be given to the creation of a foot and cycling bridge across Yarra Glen, to enable stronger connections between North Curtin and the Deakin commercial area.

Recommendation 3: Encourage active transport by planning for high-quality walking and cycling infrastructure, with links to existing cycleways, footpaths, and shops.

Public transport

A higher density urban form for North Curtin should be served by direct, high frequency, high speed public transport. While many services run adjacent to the site, it is currently not well served. Greater Canberra believes that North Curtin must be served by high quality public transport from the day the first residents move in.

Using the existing bus network, options to provide public transport to the site could include:

  • Access to the R7 and R10 services via stops on Cotter Road, or access to the R4 and R5 services via stops on Yarra Glen
  • Access to existing suburban bus routes around the site (e.g. route 57), noting that the frequency and speed of suburban routes is unlikely to constitute a high quality service given the higher densities proposed at North Curtin.

Additional considerations should be made for integration of the site with Light Rail Stage 2B. Currently, straight line distance from the North Curtin site to currently proposed light rail stops varies from 400m to almost 1000m (refer to Figure 1). Depending on the distribution of housing across the site and the quality of footpath linkages, this may be too far to support strong public transport use. The Government’s Canberra Light Rail Stage 2B Urban Infill Capability Assessment (p. 41) notes that a dedicated light rail stop would support additional density on the site. Options to ameliorate this issue include moving the proposed light rail stop at Kent Street southward to be closer to the North Curtin site, or adding an additional North Curtin light rail stop along Adelaide Avenue/Yarra Glen. 

If light rail is not completed prior to development at North Curtin, high-quality access by public transport should still be provided as a priority in the interim. 

Recommendation 4: Ensure strong public transport options at the site through the existing bus network and by enabling strong connections with Light Rail Stage 2B.

Road network

North Curtin has good potential for access to Canberra’s arterial road network by virtue of its proximity to Cotter Road and Yarra Glen. Mixed use development and provision of quality public transport (discussed above) would help reduce demand on the road network. Construction of the proposed ‘Mint Interchange’ at Yarra Glen and Cotter Road should be considered to reduce the traffic impact of development at North Curtin on surrounding roads.

Recommendation 5: Investigate construction of the proposed ‘Mint interchange’ across Yarra Glen in conjunction with development at North Curtin.

Footnotes

  1. This is an approximation based upon an elasticity of percentage change in housing stock to percentage change in rents of -2.5 (see Saunders and Tulip, 2019, p.28), an existing ACT housing stock of around 200,000 homes, and average rents of around $500 per week. ↩