New Woden: Scentre Group’s plans tick a lot of boxes. Image: SJB.
The ACT Government wants shop-top homes. It’s keen for new housing in the big three town centre shopping precincts. And light rail is as much a development driver as a public transport option.
So Scentre Group wasn’t about to hold back when it went public with its long-term development plans for Westfield Woden.
No doubt some are gobsmacked by the sheer scale of the proposal, to be delivered over 22 years from 2030: 17 towers, one 55 storeys, 4000 homes and a guestimate of 8000 residents.
These are headline-grabbing numbers and probably an ambit claim, but Scentre Group is also proposing to revolutionise its retail and entertainment offering and include much-needed community facilities in the mix.
The $21 billion company isn’t just looking at its Canberra properties in Woden and Westfield for multi-unit development but across its Westfield portfolio in this country and New Zealand, including two proposals in Sydney, one of which has been declared a State Significant project.
It has obviously been listening to the community, or at least the Woden Valley Community Council, which has been attacking the Barr Government for years over the loss of community, sporting and other facilities as the Town Centre was given over to apartment towers.
For the cash-strapped Territory Government, an offer from the private sector to pay for these facilities as part of the development will be welcome, even if there is a bit of give in Lease Variation Changes.
Importantly, these facilities would be delivered in the first stage from 2030 to 2036.
Scentre Group’s pitch is also finely tuned to government housing policy, arguing that the proposal will help restrain urban sprawl and lean into its stance on development at transport nodes.
It also provides a very long pipeline of projects, jobs and government revenue.
Some might see the proposal as a monstrous concrete jungle that will be a heat sink, overshadow everything around it, choke the roads and consume its unfortunate inhabitants.
But Scentre Group obviously believes that good design, siting, and a strategic development timetable can overcome these challenges while creating a new sustainable urban community that may live vertically, with open space and lifestyle and entertainment opportunities on the ground. Think Singapore or China.
Some will have a visceral reaction to that, but if we are going to have highly populated town centres, urban planning needs to be much better than it has been.
Partnering with a well-resourced developer like Scentre Group could help do that, as well as ease the pressure on government.
Most of what is proposed cannot occur without changing the planning controls, particularly on building heights.
Scentre Group has a 2030 starting date in mind and intends to apply for a Major Plan Amendment once community feedback is in, so it is not mucking about.
The government and the other parties need to be clear about where they stand and calibrate their responses because this proposal should not be dismissed out of hand as just too much for Canberrans or the planning system to digest.
Scentre Group flagged a new master plan three years ago, assembled a serious development team, and has produced an ambitious proposal that solves many problems for the ACT Government: new investment, thousands of homes, including dedicated rental properties and hopefully social housing, and the social infrastructure that it is finding increasingly difficult to pay for.
It may have to scale back that ambition somewhat as part of negotiations, but the Territory cannot afford to turn its back on such a proposal.
