The following residents of the ACT draw to the attention of the Assembly their concern that Community Facility Zoned parkland adjacent to Cooleman Court and homes in Watling Place, Weston, is to be destroyed to provide a car park to supplement a perceived shortage of parking spaces, due to the fact that the promised shops in Molonglo have not been built. This is being done despite an objective of the zoning being ‘to safeguard the amenity of surrounding residential areas against unacceptable adverse impacts including from traffic, parking, noise’.
This would be a Prohibited Development under the Planning and Development Act 2007, without the use of the Minimum Assessment or Merit Track. This Track allows a Prohibited Development if it is ‘temporary’. Whilst ‘temporary’ is not defined by Act or Regulation, no reasonable person would consider leveling parkland, covering it in bitumen and felling mature trees to be temporary.
The parkland is a vital community asset. It is a cool, shaded play space, meeting place and waiting area for the bus. It provides a safe route allowing residents to access the shops and bus stops from adjacent suburbs. It is a buffer between homes and the noise and traffic of the shopping centre. It contains multiple local native shade and habitat trees that are critical to local biodiversity, urban cooling and community well-being.
Your petitioners, therefore, request the Assembly to call on the Government to preserve the parkland and not build a car park on Weston Section 75, Block 2.