Encouraging developers to build more housing around Canberra's ageing shopping centres and allowing flats above more shops are the items at the top of the new Planning Minister's to-do list.
Chris Steel, who was handed the portfolio late last year, also wants to ensure "well-intentioned" controls do not stymie missing middle housing, which includes row houses and walk-up apartments.
"One of the priorities that I will be discussing with the Planning Directorate early on is asking them to do a piece of work around how we can provide more homes and better shopping centres, at every shopping centre, local and group centre in Canberra," Mr Steel said.
The Planning Minister said he would also direct the Planning Directorate to consider which planning controls are preventing missing middle homes from being built.
Mr Steel said the government had opportunities to incentivise the renewal of ageing shopping centres with projects that would add more housing.
"I think that's a great place, because it's close to services, but it's also an opportunity to support the regeneration of ageing private buildings," he said in an interview with The Canberra Times.
"Communities are coming to me and saying ... they like what they see in Giralang - and that has its own history - but they like what they see in terms of the provision of housing and also a great outcome in terms of providing better shopping facilities.
"Why isn't that happening at places like Richardson shops or Kambah Village or Mawson group centre?
"So that will be part of my agenda: more housing, better shops at every local and group centre in Canberra."
The Giralang Shops have sat empty since 2005, but work has now begun to redevelop the site into a mixed-use area with apartments and a new supermarket.
The government has also committed to selling land at Kippax for a mixed-use development that would feature more housing.
Dickson Village, which features a Coles supermarket at the base of an apartment building, was completed last year.
Action on zoning
In July 2023, Mr Steel spoke at the annual ACT Labor conference in support of changes to zoning rules in Canberra's suburbs that would allow more housing.
Mr Steel told the conference a generation of young people and workers would not have access to housing without changes to the planning system.
"I am strongly of the view that we've reached a time in our city's life where we must reform our zoning laws to provide more housing options for more families sustainably within our communities, close to services, infrastructure and green spaces, while keeping the character that makes our city a great place to live," he said at the time.
Since then, the ACT government adopted changes to the RZ1 zone - which covers large parts of Canberra's suburban areas and has restricted housing to detached homes on separate blocks - to allow more dual occupancies.
Mr Steel told The Canberra Times he wanted to retain Canberra's reputation for being a 15-minute city with the best access to public spaces in Australia.
"It's a great starting point when we're talking about further density and providing room for more homes within the existing urban footprint," he said.
"I know there's been a lot of talk about RZ1 zoning as a place to provide more housing. I'm interested in that. And I think symbolic of that, my first meeting [as planning minister] was with Greater Canberra."
Greater Canberra is a community advocacy group that has been calling for the removal of "exclusionary zoning rules" which have prevented the construction of "missing middle" in the capital's suburbs.
"But that's only part of the picture," Mr Steel said.
The Planning Minister said he wanted to make sure the government was looking at providing additional housing in other zones.
"There's further policy work to do in the residential zones. What I've heard from the community and stakeholders is that there are layers and layers of well-intentioned planning controls that are currently preventing missing middle housing being built," he said.
"I'm listening to those views and I'm really keen to make sure that we get the outcome of more housing, not just in RZ1 but in other residential zones as well."
An eye on good design
Mr Steel said the government was hopeful the territory's new planning system - which moves from rules-based assessment to an approach focused on outcomes - would deliver better building designs.
"We'll start to see that through the initial development applications that come through. It's a different way of thinking and it will challenge developers to come up with more innovative designs that hopefully also deliver a more sustainable outcome, and [are] more consistent with Canberra's values around a well-designed planned city," he said.
But it will take time before the new planning system is fully up and running. Mr Steel said he expected buildings approved under the new process to be a couple of years away.
"What I've heard from Canberrans is that they also weren't happy with the old system, which was process and rules based," he said.
"I think many Canberrans could point to a development that just ticked the boxes and got through the system and couldn't even be appealed on that basis because it was meeting those roles but didn't really have a very good design outcome."
Looking to the future
Mr Steel said it was the job of planners to look into the future, beyond four-year Assembly election cycles, but acknowledged it was always a challenge to bring people on a journey of change.
"That means we do need to start bringing forward investments in mass transit, like light rail, but also planning around that to make sure that we've got housing to accommodate that larger number of people," he said.
"That means significant change, but it also means potential opportunities as well."
Mr Steel said he wanted to retain what the community loved about Canberra but that there was also an opportunity to improve the quality of life the city enjoys.
"As we densify and provide more homes, I think it's critical to bring people along the journey, particularly people that enjoy many of the elements that Canberra's past has been about," he said.
