The next WVCC public meeting will be held at 7pm on Wednesday, March 4 at the Woden Southern Cross Club.
The WVCC welcomes development in the town centre but we want it to be done well to create a contemporary urban precinct with sunny green spaces and community facilities. We welcome the commitments to a CIT and a sports stadium and look forward to contributing to their design.
Major Projects Canberra will provide presentations about the new CIT and the redevelopment of the bus interchange. On February 26, the Canberra Times reported that the design contract for the new Woden CIT campus seeks options to maximise development of the 5,000 square-metre (bus station and former police station) site. The design of a 16-storey complex will include an indoor sport centre and either commercial space or affordable housing with ground level car parking and a public piazza. We note that the CIT is likely to be located on some of the floors of the tower and the multi-purpose sports stadium requires four courts, sprung floors and around 500 seats for competitions.
The Suburban Land Agency will inform us about the land release program, which includes the sale of the old carpark north of the library. The lease for this site provides for 480 apartments and towers up to 20 storeys high. There will also be a presentation about the proposal for the Strathgordon site which allows for 492 apartments.
We note that the small block between Brewer Street and the chemist warehouse (zoned for 12 storeys) has been sold to Zapari and will be developed to provide 600 apartments in what is reported to be the tallest building in Woden. The density of this building equates to around 4,670 dwellings per hectare, significantly higher than the Committee for Sydney's 2016 recommendation for high density of 600 dwellings per hectare.
The first flurry of residential investment activity has earmarked over 20 residential towers and 5,000 apartments that will house around 10,000 people. We are very keen for a land use plan to guide investment and traffic modelling to inform the management of congestion in the centre.
We have also requested a land use plan to ensure that we know where children will go to school and identify sites for community facilities to ensure they are in the right place to provide meeting places to reduce social isolation.
For further information go to wvcc.org.au and join the email list and follow the WVCC on Facebook and Instagram.
