Recent inquiries into the National Capital Authority and its overlap with ACT planning laws have led to speculation the federal government was stepping back from oversight of planning in Canberra in the national interest.

But the appointment of Melbourne, Sydney, Queensland and ACT expert designers, architects and landscape planners to give independent advice on major projects within central areas around Lake Burley Griffin, inner suburbs and major approach routes shows the NCA asserting its role.

Groups critical of controversial developments such as the ASIO building and a new slipway at Black Mountain Peninsula receiving NCA approval have welcomed the panel’s professional oversight of Canberra’s national significance.

Dismay over lake developments and proposed developments led to a group launching a national heritage listing last year for Lake Burley Griffin and Parklands. One advocate, Juliet Ramsay, launched an additional emergency heritage listing to thwart the new slipway, which nevertheless was approved in December.

NCA chief executive Malcolm Snow, who took up the role in January, instigated the design review panel. Mr Snow said similarr panels in cities around the world ensured major projects’ fundamental design principles were right, even if that took more time in the early design stages.

While ACT design consultants have been drawing up the City-to-Lake’s urban renewal for years, precinct guidelines drawn up by the NCA are only months old.

Despite this, Mr Snow said two sessions between the panel and ACT government had shown a strong willingness to share design philosophy and logic with the panel. It is headed by architect Andrew Metcalf, who also belongs to a NSW government architects review panel.

''The panel have been quite forthright in their response back to the consultants. I think that has been a very effective early exchange of views and we want that to continue through the next stages of formulation of plans for West Basin, because guidelines and feedback the panel have provided, we think, and the ACT government has indicated to us, has been very valuable to them.

''’Quite frankly, these are early ideas. They are things that have got people talking and got people excited about what the opportunity could be.

''But at the same time I’ve got no sense these things have progressed so far that it is not possible to be able to have a pretty robust dialogue with the ACT government about merits of current proposals.’’

The panel would help the NCA guide Northbourne Avenue’s adaptation for light rail and to become a unique boulevard lined with native trees and a generous width.

Mr Snow said qualities that marked Lake Burley Griffin as one of Canberra’s best assets should be strengthened, and more work had to be done on design guidance during ongoing meetings with the ACT government.

Ms Ramsay, a member of the International Council on Monuments and Sites, a group for cultural heritage professionals, welcomed the design review panel. She said the lake shore had suffered 20 years of piece-meal developments.

In a paper she wrote for the Australian Garden History Society, Ms Ramsay said: ''Such developments whether completed or proposed exploit the aesthetic value of the lake, absorbing its scenery as their own and returning nothing but blighted vistas from other areas of the lake.’’

Walter Burley Griffin Society president James Weirick says the design review panel is 25 years overdue and should have been formed when the NCA succeeded the National Capital Development Commission.

ACT industry and professional groups welcomed the panel, which will become integral in the NCA’s development approval process.