8 Mar / 2019

Constraints on Grey St Aged Care Facility

After a day of mediation/negotiation at the ACT Civil and Administrative Tribunal, DRA agreed to:

  • an additional basement with a net increase of fifteen spaces on site.
    • This will reduce the demand for parking on adjacent streets and around the Deakin shops from staff and visitors.
    • This concession has involved some redesign, including a new level of basement parking, and will involve significant additional costs for the developer.
  • a reduction in the number of day care patients from forty to twenty.
    • will reduce traffic to and from the facility in periods when school traffic is significant. The trade-off for this change is a possible additional three-beds.
  • changes to the Hopetoun Circuit end of the building which result in the planting of a row of large evergreen trees to hide the facade and reduce the visual impact of the building.
    • The facility entrance on Hopetoun will deleted.
  • in principle agreement to another pedestrian crossing on Hopetoun Circuit
    • this will be a raised crossing which will also serve to slow traffic.
  • Other traffic-slowing measures in Hopetoun
    • the speed limit is proposed to be lowered to 40 k between Adelaide Avenue to just past (and into) McGregor Street.
  • pedestrian safety islands are proposed in Gawler Crescent and Grey Street.
    • DRA is to be involved in consultations on all these changes.
  • additional landscaping adjacent to the north eastern courtyard wall which will be visible from Adelaide Avenue
  • acceptance from ACT Government representatives that a solution has to be found to the traffic problems in Grey Street –
    • DRA expects to be involved.

Overall the outcome reduces the building capacity, reduces its traffic and parking impacts in the suburb, provides additional landscaping on its surrounds which will make it less intrusive in its suburban setting and lays the groundwork for significant improvements in pedestrian safety and other road users in Hopetoun Circuit as well as for further negotiations with the ACT Government for a workable solution to the traffic chaos on Grey Street in school peak periods.
In addressing resident concerns about this facility, the DRA has been advised by Ted Streatfeild of Resolution Planning and Alan Bradbury of BAL Lawyers. The negotiated outcome has avoided further major legal costs. While we did not get everything we argued for, the result is a major improvement on the original proposal. The decision is at the link.
The DRA would like to thank those who contributed to the costs involved in challenging this development.