The Garden City provisions of the Territory Plan have been evaluated, consistent with Government direction to do so, and refined as directed by the Minister for Planning Andrew Barr.

The  provisions have now been translated into the RZ2 – Suburban Core Zone in the new Territory Plan which will commence with the new planning system on 31 March 2008.

To ensure appropriate residential amenity is maintained in the Residential Suburban Core Area RZ2, as well as limiting the number of dwellings on a standard block, the RZ2 Development Code includes requirements to ensure that development addresses the street and the existing neighbourhood characteristics in scale, form and site coverage.

The provisions

The Garden City provisions were introduced into the existing Territory Plan in 2003. Prior to this, dual occupancy and multi-unit developments (such as triple occupancies) were permissible across all the residential areas of Canberra. 

There was community concern that this type of development was undermining the Garden City integrity of suburbs and the community sought some level of certainty about the nature, scale and form of development that could occur.

In response, the Government consulted on and introduced the Garden City provisions. These focused residential intensification into Residential Core Areas (known as A10 areas), usually within a radius of 200 to 300 metres of local or group centres.

Evaluation process

The evaluation process included consultation to identify issues, an independent market analysis of property values, sales and sustainability, an assessment of development applications, objections and AAT decisions, a design review of development applications and review of similar provisions in several New South Wales jurisdictions.

This culminated in a discussion paper (PDF 600KB), which was open for public comment in April and May 2007. The Discussion Paper identified the key issues and proposed a range of options to address these issues. A consultation report (PDF 213.4KB) responds to matters raised from the consultation.

Following the Discussion Paper, ACTPLA released a Fact Sheet detailing four proposed refinements to the new Territory Plan.  

Evaluation findings

The evaluation identified that the Garden City provisions have generally achieved their original intent of protecting the residential amenity and character of Canberra’s suburbs and focusing residential redevelopment and moderate intensification into Residential Core Areas:

• dual occupancy approvals in Residential Core Areas are now double that in Suburban Areas;
• multi-unit developments in Residential Core Areas are more than four times the number of multi-unit developments in Suburban Areas.

Proposed refinements to the provisions

The Minister for Planning directed the ACT Planning and Land Authority to amend the Garden City provisions to respond to the evaluation findings. Consequently, public comment was sought on the Refinements to the Garden City provisions of the Territory Plan (PDF 230.6KB) between November 17 and December 14, 2007. These refinements have been translated into the RZ2 – Suburban Core Zone in the new Territory Plan which will commence with the new planning system on 31 March 2008.