How far can we go? That’s what needs to be decided before setting the Urban Growth Boundary. Photo: Ian Bushnell.
Canberra is going to build its city walls, and beyond them, there be dragons, possibly earless.
They are not to keep enemies out but to keep us in – or at least contain the homes we live in to a defined area.
By June 2027, Canberra will have its Urban Growth Boundary, a hard limit to how far the city can extend its footprint.
At first glance, this makes sense. Everybody knows the deleterious effects of urban sprawl on the environment, lifestyles and government budgets.
Those arguments were out on force in the Assembly last week when Labor and the Greens stitched up a deal on a motion to set city limits.
For the Canberra Liberals’ Peter Cain, it was like old times when the Greens were welded to the Labor machine that rolled over his party in the Assembly last term.
He bristled at being sidelined from such a serious proposal, calling it out as a quid pro quo for securing Greens’ support for supply in minority government.
That’s politics.
But he did raise the question of whether drawing a line on a map was necessary and if it would actually achieve anything.
Planning Minister Chris Steel certainly gave himself plenty of wiggle room, noting that the motion only talks about considering protecting the Western Edge – a vast area from Tuggeranong in the south to West Belconnen in the north – and the Eastern Broadacre, which includes the contentious Majura Valley agricultural area that has been eyed off for light industry.
The Greens’ intent is clear – they want to save as much bushland as possible, a la Bluetts Block in Molonglo, and farmland.
Investigations into the Western Edge will continue, with Mr Steel saying the studies are needed if it is to be protected.
But there are already some natural barriers to development there – bushfire risk, topography and the cost of extending services.
Mr Steel had a shot at the Liberals’ Kowen housing policy from the 2024 election, but Mr Cain had a point highlighting the government joint venture at Ginninderry, which will eventually spill across the border.
There’s sprawl, it seems, and then there is planned development.
We have two years to wait for all the studies to come in before the walls go up, but if Ginninderry is any guide, they are going to be a fair way out.
Still, the boundary will mark a line in the sand about containing urban growth and accelerating infill development to create the compact city.
This is where the real fight is – over green space, the bush capital, ‘missing middle’ housing, overdevelopment and whether the planning and tax settings will deliver the homes a growing city will need.
Already, the property industry is saying that if you are going to limit the city’s geographical size, then the government will have to do more to make the desired missing middle – duplexes, townhouses, terraces and low-rise apartments – a viable proposition for developers and builders.
We will hear a lot more about zoning changes and lease variation charges.
Mr Cain agrees, pointing to the low take-up of dual occupancy applications under the government’s planning change to allow 120 sqm homes to be built on properties greater than 800 sqm in RZ1 areas.
The Liberals support sensible infill but have always championed the single-block, family home that they argue is an endangered species in Canberra under Labor.
Most of us would prefer the standard Aussie home and backyard, but there is a driver for infill and density that is inescapable – price and, to a lesser extent, location.
Even in Canberra, with its high relative incomes, the amounts needed to borrow for a greenfield home are terrifying, especially at current interest rates.
People also want the convenience of location, close to workplaces, especially if they are resigned to renting.
Like it or not, that is where we are, and other than building our way out of trouble, no one is suggesting changing anything else to put the property genie back in the bottle.
The move to have a mechanism to contain sprawl will probably be a useful tool in charting the city’s future and for the community to debate the housing and urban development issues facing the ACT, including the question of whether we actually have to have a population of 700,000 by 2050 and rising, as projected.
But don’t expect an Urban Growth Boundary to be a panacea or anything more than a guide. Walls can be moved.
