Category: Curtin

North Curtin Residential Development area – planning proposals

The National Capital Authority has put its proposed development constraints out for public comment by 10 June 2026.

comments should be made by email to dcp@nca.gov.au

Here are sone information resources to go with it:

June 10 deadline for comments on North Curtin Residential Area draft development conditions

The consultation period for the National Capital Authority’s draft development conditions for the North Curtin Residential area are open now, closing on Wednesday 10 June.

This is the development of 1200 housing units proposed for the eastern third of the North Curtin horse paddocks, proposed by the ACT Government. It comes under planning conditions to be set by the NCA (it is regarded as designated area even though this part of the area is regular residential). The conditions indicate a proposed ecology water park around the Yarralumla Creek through the site and up to the back fences of existing north Curtin houses, active travel connections across the creek, space for supporting services and retail such as cafés.

To read the draft documents and see how to make a submission go to   https://www.nca.gov.au/planning/public-consultations/northcurtindcpdd

The Residents Association has major concerns with this development. The starting point is that it’s a lot of people in a small space. There are only two proposed road accesses, one into McCulloch Street and one into Cotter Road. Despite claiming to support less need for private cars, there’s no strong indication of how the site might be connected to bicycle networks or the light rail (at present there’s only a proposal for the light rail to trundle past—no tram stop! and an active connection across the creek into the back streets of Curtin and up across Cotter Rd – not to any active travel path along Yarra Glen/Adelaide Ave). NCA, Infrastructure Canberra and ACT Government please note: you need to join up your planning and solve this! At the moment it looks like each of the three planning authorities is regarding access for cars, pedestrians and active travellers as somebody else’s problem, to be considered in future. Any new development that aims to shift residents’ use of cars must generously provide for the alternatives up front, in planning requirements.

The draft conditions need to be read carefully between the lines and the illustrations. Where the conditions state something ‘must’ be done—that’s a real condition. This includes maximum building heights and minimum ceiling heights, open spaces and the water ecology park, 30% tree canopy cover—and a maximum 1-car parking space per dwelling (whether studio or 1, 2 or 3  bedrooms).
But the diagrams and maps of layout of the blocks and roads are only ‘indicative’ and ‘proposed’— not mandated conditions.

Making comments on the DA for Marymead CatholicCare affordable housing development on Strangways St

The Development Application for 54 units of affordable housing on Strangways St is open for comments until 13 April (this has been extended from 2 April).
The development is on the site of the Catholic presbytery, between Holy Trinity church and the Ron Reynolds training centre).

Here is what we said about this DA in our newsletter for March 2026.

 

North Curtin Residential area community consultation report 2024

The North Curtin residential area (the Curtin horse paddock site) is proposed for residential development of 1300 dwellings.

The ACT Government issued a Report on Community Consultation done in 2024.
The key themes it identified are (in order of numbers of responses)

  • transport and connections (pedestrian and cycle paths, access to light rail, bus service, connections to Curtin and Yarralumla shops)
  • green space and environment (landscape design, green spaces, efficient transport and travel, climate conscious building design)
  • amenity and infrastructure (needs cafe, green recreation spaces)
  • built form and housing (favouring townhouses, duplexes, apartments up to 4 storeys (not up to 6 or 8)
  • accessibility (people with disability, age-friendly design, affordability)
  • First Nations representation
  • Weather impact mitigation (Yarralumla creek and flooding)
  • safety (including flood risk, active travel paths, lighting at night)
  • consideration for horses

Amberfield Traffic Lights petition – ACT government response

The ACT Government has responded to the Legislative Assembly petition to install traffic lights on Cotter Rd for the intersection with Fryer Rd, which is the sole access for the Amberfield  retirement community.

The full response is here.

As a summary of the main points:

  • Costs of any upgrade to the intersection are the responsibility of the lessee (LDK, the developer and owner of Amberfield);
  • planning here is the responsibility of the National Capital Authority (NCA) rather than the ACT Government;
  • traffic markings and lanes are done by ACT Roads, who are considering and discussing some improvements;
  • ACT government is against traffic lights as slowing down traffic on Cotter Rd too much;
  • ACT government is against adding bus stops because it’s not safe to cross Cotter Rd, unless a safer crossing can be provided.

Without traffic lights what might this safer crossing be? an overbridge or underpass?  but the response also states

LDK Amberfield intends to submit a potential infrastructure upgrade option to the NCA and ACTGovernment for future consideration. Roads ACT have suggested that this option also consider a path connection to the existing Cotter Road path underpass, further to the east.

We will wait for further news.

Nature based flood mitigation for the edge of Curtin

After the AGM in November 2025 Dr Roslyn Prinsley (Head, Disaster Solutions, Institute for Climate, Energy and Disaster Solutions, ANU) presented a talk on nature-based solutions for flood mitigation.

The slides of the presentation are here:  Curtin Residents 2025 NbS 23 November-v3.pdf

The edge of Curtin is bordered by the flood-prone Yarralumla Creek that is squeezed into a concrete channel, but it has potential to be more natural parkland. It would be good to have a more natural watercourse beside our blue-green pathways.

Plans and consultation for Marymead CatholicCare affordable housing at Holy Trinity, Strangways St

The plans for the proposed development of affordable housing units in Strangways St are at the stage of public consultation, ahead of a Development Application expected shortly.  The proposal is by Marymead CatholicCare Canberra and Goulburn, for 54 units in 5 storey buildings on the block beside the Holy Trinity church (currently the site of the presbytery/priests house).

In summary: this proposal is smaller than the recent Wesley Mission project across Theodore St. It has more parking per unit (66 parking places for 54 units) and has 39% tree canopy cover, more than the ACT target. Its three buildings have 5 storeys of flats joined at every level, with entry at street level and a lower ground floor car parking level. The architecture includes the design of the internal spaces for social and community interactions, and visually interesting roof lines that pay attention to the neighbouring church. The roof is below the level of the church spire.

You can hear and discuss more at two public pop-up sessions in the next week in Curtin Square next Saturday and the following Thursday:

  • Session 1: Saturday 14 June, 10:30am – 12:00pm
  • Session 2: Thursday 19 June, 3:00pm – 4:30pm
Members of the project team will be available at each session to talk through the proposal, answer questions, and provide further information. Online comments can be made to the developer at the webpage below.
The proposal is introduced here (webpage)
https://www.purdon.com.au/2025/06/05/block-7-section-61-curtin/
and for detail and pictures there is a set of plans (large PDF, 18.6 MB)
https://www.purdon.com.au/2025/06/05/block-7-section-61-curtin/
The Residents Association will keep you informed and we will make a submission on the planning. Please let us know what you think as well, to help us represent community views into the submission.

CRA submission on Wesley Affordable and Supported Housing DA May 2025

Here’s our submission to the ACT government planning directorate on the proposed development of 99 units on the block at Martin St/Theodore St/Carruthers St.
REPRESENTATION CRA for DA 202543965 (PDF, 2 Mbyte)

We talked to many local residents and considered the other submissions we knew about to make this a more representative representation (!)
Our key issues are

1  Parking: not nearly enough car parking spaces
2  Use of public land along Martin Street (including the proposal to use public land for on street parking)
3  Pathways, active travel, and pedestrian safety (including internal pathways leading to road crossings)
4  Overshadowing: Shadow diagrams are missing (within the block and onto nearby properties)

and others, including the need for bicycle storage

Public Meeting – two affordable rental housing projects in Curtin

CRA held a public meeting on Sunday 24 November 2024 with presentations on two projects to build affordable rental and supported housing in central Curtin.

One is by Wesley Mission for affordable rental units and supported housing units to be built on the almost-empty block on Martin St, across Theodore St from the shops, in the area to Theodore St and Carruthers St.

See https://wesleycurtin.au/

for a description of the project, pictures, and details of consultation events:

  • Thursday 28 Nov a pop-up in Curtin Square
  • 4 December a workshop

The second proposal is for affordable rental units on the block next to Holy Trinity church and the Ron Reynolds ACT government training centre, at 3 Strangways St, currently the presbytery (priests’ residence). The project is by Marymead CatholicCare, described in a presentation here. Detailed plans are not yet available.