Shop-top housing here? Kingston shops on the corner of Kennedy and Giles Street. Photo: Michelle Kroll.
Kingston and Barton Residents Group has blasted Planning Minister Chris Steel for delaying the heritage registration of the 100-year-old Kingston shops, saying it casts the shadow of multi-storey housing over the area and puts its heritage values at risk.
Mr Steel, who is also Heritage Minister, has extended the ‘provisional registration’ of the earliest part of the Kingston Shops, now celebrating its centenary, by three months to 27 August rather than proceeding to final registration.
He said he was not questioning whether the shops should be listed but wanted to clarify for the community and business owners whether mixed-use development, including shop-top housing, could be supported.
“Under our agreement to the National Housing Board, and the planning reform blueprint, there is a big focus on supporting more housing, including in well-located areas close to services like shopping centers and so it’s important at this time when we’re trying to increase housing supply that we do have clarity about these issues,” Mr Steel said.
Mr Steel said the Territory Plan allowed for mixed-use development up to six storeys in some parts of the shops and four in others, and it needed to be clarified whether that type of development would still be permitted with a heritage listing.
He said heritage requirements were not incompatible with new housing, saying there were good examples of adaptive reuse around Canberra.
But KBRG president Richard Johnston said trying to impose ‘shop-top’ housing on the old shops was ill-advised, unnecessary and likely to have potentially disastrous consequences for the highly valued heritage character of the Kingston Centre.
“We suspect that the Minister for Heritage, who is also Minister for Planning and the ACT Treasurer, is being influenced by the BANANA (Build Anything Near Anywhere Nevermind Anyone) ‘missing middle’ housing push.”
Mr Johnston said significant redevelopment of the existing individual shops would require increased servicing and on-site car parking.
He doubted there would be great demand for shop-top housing, given that 90 per cent of Kingston already consisted of apartments, all within walking distance of the shops.
There were further opportunities for larger-scale, medium-density residential developments close to the centre, but outside the historical core.
“Block amalgamations and potentially inappropriate taller structures would affect the existing heritage character of the Kingston Shops, as has happened elsewhere,” Mr Johnston said.
“Shop-top housing in this situation would be unlikely to provide appropriate residential amenity for residents, from experience with ‘mixed use’ developments in the Kingston area.”
Mr Johnston said the Heritage Council should not only list the ‘Early Kingston Shops’ (Giles and Kennedy streets), but should consider whether other parts of the centre should also be registered.
“The pre-1960s Green Square and the Jardine Street frontages have strong and valued visual character complementary to the older shops and to the already registered Old Kingston Post Office,” he said.
Mr Johnston said the Kingston Centre Master Plan (June 2011) consultation report concluded that the ACT community strongly supported the heritage character of the centre.
It said the centre was highly valued for “village character, vibrancy and diversity”.
