Urban Expansion in the ACT

How can we address these problems?

If we want to protect our environment and create a compact and efficient city in Canberra, we need to:

1. Plan strategically for the future of Canberra to minimise development on greenfield sites and areas which support native species and communities. Environmental impacts should be avoided rather than offset. Current legislation and planning is not accomplishing this.
2. Where development does occur, plan how houses and streets are built so that biodiversity is more significantly integrated in urban form. 
3. Where the environment has already been impacted by development, identify opportunities to restore nature and improve its resilience to other pressures. 
4. Better recognise the intrinsic value of Canberra’s natural environment and that once it is lost or degraded, it cannot be recovered in many instances.  

The following recommendations are some ways the ACT Government can work towards these outcomes.

Recommendation 1.  In order to identify areas of environmental conservation value of undeveloped land within the existing urban footprint and potential future development areas, undertake the following:

• Consolidate existing strategic mapping and assessments of the ACT.
• Identify gaps and undertake mapping and assessments of these missing areas.
• Publish strategic mapping and assessments of the ACT.

Recommendation 2. Based on the outputs of Recommendation 1, develop and implement a transparent process to identify key values for all open space within Canberra, as well as potential future development areas, to ensure future development does not impact environmental values. This would clearly articulate and rank values (including environmental values) and would enable the prioritisation of development on sites where environmental impacts would be lower. 

Recommendation 3. Develop and implement a method for the consideration of cumulative and incremental environmental impacts – an ecosystem approach – under the Planning Act 2023 (s 10 and 104).

Recommendation 4.  Develop and implement a comprehensive agricultural policy for the ACT that gives consideration to:

• Better supporting farmers to undertake conservation and biodiversity practices outside the reserve system, including an ecosystem approach.
• Resolving lease uncertainty issues so that rural leaseholders have greater opportunity to plan and undertake economic and conservation activities.
• Improving communication and collaboration across tenures to support an ecosystem approach to pests and weeds, and landscape-scale habitat connectivity.

Recommendation 5. Fulfil statutory requirement to review the 2018 Planning Strategy and update to:

• Set an urban growth boundary.
• Define ‘infill’ and ‘greenfield’ with regard to the current urban boundary.
• Replace “up to” in setting targets for 70% infill with “at least”.

Recommendation 6. Refuse development applications that negatively impact threatened ecological communities. The development application assessment process should explicitly seek to avoid indirect impacts from edge effects and urban encroachment as well as outright destruction of threatened communities.

Recommendation 7. Finalise and implement the ACT Offsets policy, including the following:

• Stipulating that offsets are a last resort, and that avoidance and mitigation are the default approach
• Where the use of offsets is unavoidable, requiring that any offsets have clear monitoring and reporting guidelines within the ACT Offsets policy

Recommendation 8. Establish and resource an internal auditor function in the Territory Planning Authority in order to:

• Assure compliance with development applications and EPBC Act approvals.
• Undertake random audits of compliance with environmental laws and conditions during construction.
• Apply stronger penalties for proponents and contractors who do not adhere to environmental approval requirements.

Recommendation 9. Require that environmental assessments to support development applications must be conducted by suitably qualified ecological consultants contracted by and accountable to the Conservator for Flora and Fauna, not the developer.

Recommendation 10. Implement standardised assessment criteria of Environmental Impact Statements and of Environmental Significance Opinions, rather than using Guides, to ensure that:

• All applicants provide consistent information about environmental impacts.
• ACT Government assessments apply consistent assessment criteria in evaluating information provided by applicants.

This would address identified inconsistencies in the level of detail and type of information provided currently in EIS and ESO applications described in Section 4.4.2.

Recommendation 11. Strengthen legislative requirements to retain mature native trees in developments, including trees which have been planted.  

Recommendation 12. Implement bans on further installation of artificial turf in all suburbs and set a date for mandatory removal of all currently used residential artificial turf. The ban should be absolute for residential settings, and by exemption following application and approval for commercial and community settings.

Recommendation 13. Increase the level of funding support to facilitate the implementation and maintenance of high-quality living infrastructure.

Recommendation 14. Provide definitions of the following terms in the Planning Act 2023:

• Land Management Agreement
• significant adverse environmental impact (to include both qualitative and quantitative aspects of the impacts)

Recommendation 15. Include Stromlo Block 402 in the gazettal of Stromlo Block 403 and Denman Prospect Block 12 as nature reserve

Further explanation of recommendations and their value can be found here.