ACT Greens Policy Statement on West Basin development

For the ACT Greens to accept any residential development of the West Basin precinct, there are a series of preconditions that need to be met. These include:

1. Any development needs to protect and enhance the public domain. Public access to the Lake and surrounds must be maintained in a manner that promotes a wide range of recreational pursuits. The 55-meter buffer between the lake and any residential development must be enshrined in any agreement.

2. The development process needs to build in an in-depth and meaningful community consultation process as it progresses given the significance of this site. We do not believe the community consultation phase should be seen as finished and there are opportunities to include innovative consultation methodologies into future stages of the project. We would be asking for a transparent community consultation process to be built into future phases of the project.

3. Maintenance and enhancement of the public domain needs to address the issue of access to vistas and as such, any residential development needs to be of an appropriate scale and design that does not detract from this. 

4. Any residential development must include a commitment to social and community housing, with a diversity of housing types and tenures. These targets would need to be mandated and be locked in relation to long term provision of social housing on the site. 

5. We would seek processes to assure us and the community that this development will be subject to design standards and environmental standards relevant for the 21st Century. The design should be sympathetic to the landscape it is part of and not detract from the setting it is located in. 6. The tree canopy and green spaces must be maintained. Wherever possible, significant trees must be incorporated into the design of spaces and where trees are lost, replacement of appropriate species must be factored into the development process. Living infrastructure should be incorporated into the public and private domain.