Independent MLA Fiona Carrick says Woden is at a turning point. Photo: Michelle Kroll.
The ACT Government will consider declaring the Woden Town Centre an urban renewal precinct and establishing an authority to administer it after supporting a motion from Independent MLA Fiona Carrick in the Legislative Assembly.
The government also agreed to include an integrated land‑use plan for Woden in the Southern Gateway Planning and Design Framework.
Ms Carrick’s motion originally called on the government to declare Woden an urban renewal precinct, but Planning Minister Chris Steel sought an amendment as the move would need to be considered as part of the 2026-27 budget process.
Ms Carrick said after the Assembly unanimously adopted her motion that the community would know by budget time in June if the government was serious about planning in Woden.
Her priority had always been an integrated land-use plan for Woden, but she would welcome an authority along the lines of the City Renewal Authority to coordinate planning in the Town Centre, and suggested it could serve as a model for Gungahlin and the town centre to be developed in Molonglo.
Ms Carrick has been an advocate for better planning in Woden for years, particularly the delivery of community facilities, and the issue carried her into the Assembly in 2024.
But the imminent release of the Southern Gateway Planning Framework and Scentre Group’s Masterplan proposal for the redevelopment of the Woden Westfield site has created new urgency around the direction of the Town Centre.
Ms Carrick said that with Scentre Group preparing to lodge a major amendment to the Territory Plan to pave the way for its multi-tower proposal, Woden needed to be included in the Southern Gateway framework, and the government needed to have a vision and strong negotiating position to ensure good outcomes for the community.
“This is a turning point,” she said. “We either get great outcomes now, or it becomes really difficult.”
Scentre Group’s Concept Master Plan. Ms Carrick sees opportunities for the community if planned properly. Image: SJB.
While Ms Carrick believes Scentre Group’s bid for 25-storeys was too high, she sees great potential in the podiums to provide sites for community facilities for indoor sports, arts and theatre, as she had seen in the high-density Rhodes Central development near Sydney Olympic Park.
She said these facilities could be funded through lease variation charge discounts and waivers, with some facilities returned to the government to operate.
“In Canberra, we tend to use our podiums for car parking, but I was enlightened to see that they can be used for community facilities, and that brings them right into the heart of Woden and into really central accessible spots,” she said.
Ms Carrick said Beconnnen and Tuggeranong town centres were relatively well served with community facilities, but Woden, the ACT’s oldest town centre, had lost its identity after piecemeal high-rise residential development.
“Woden is over-supplied with small apartments and undersupplied in the social infrastructure that makes neighbourhoods thrive,” she told the Assembly.
Ms Carrick said the government was moving to rectify this with a commitment to examining new indoor sports facilities and last week announced a new 50-metre outdoor pool for Woden, but it needed to take a coordinated approach with the private sector on the next phase of development in the Town centre.
“I call on the government to act decisively, deliver an integrated land use plan for the Woden Town Centre that includes clear governance involving business owners and the community, a social infrastructure gap analysis that identifies preferred sites for missing facilities, transparent assumptions, published options, and critically, published criteria for the site selection,” she said.
To this end, her motion called for the Woden Town Centre Working Group, established last year, to conduct a housing analysis, identify sites for entertainment and activating public places, examine social infrastructure gaps and identify facility sites, ensure a tree canopy target of 30 per cent, ensure Scentre Group’s master plan aligns with the Southern Gateway Planning and Design Framework, and develop a negotiating strategy with Scentre Group.
The government will need to report back to the Assembly by June.
