The redevelopment of the Red Hill public housing precinct includes a new road and up to twice the number of residents, with six-storey high-density apartment blocks at the centre of the development.
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It is unclear whether public housing tenants will get much of a look-in at Red Hill, with government officials telling residents that at least 90 per cent of the new housing will be private and no more than 10 per cent for public use.
The government is yet to decide whether to sell the land as one lot to a developer or as smaller lots, according to officials.
The development would include commercial development neat the shops and a new road that parallels Cygnet Crescent.
The government outlined its plans for four major public-housing precincts in meetings with local residents and is now preparing the zone changes, with more workshops planned.
The others are the Stuart Flats on Captain Cook Crescent opposite the Coles supermarket in Manuka, the Gowrie Court flats at the other end of Captain Cook Crescent, backing onto Jerrabomberra Oval, and the Strathgordon Court flats on Melrose Drive in Woden. New housing developments are also planned for vacant land beside the Harmonie German Club in Narrabundah, and on a block in Baldwin Drive in Kaleen.
All are bundled together in a territory plan change.
The Inner South Community Council said the planned zoning of RZ5, allowing high-density apartments up to 21.5 metres high, mostly six or eight storeys, was unacceptable in Griffith, Manuka and Red Hill. President Gary Kent said it would be completely out of place with the surrounding homes in Red Hill and Gowrie Court. The sites should be developed under a master plan, so design could be controlled rather than sold off in small blocks, he said.
Red Hill residents are keen to see the flats redeveloped, but Mr Kent said the plans could see another 400 people in the area, doubling the number of residents, increasing traffic problems and destroying landscape values.
The demolition and redevelopment of Stuart Flats in Manuka stretches beyond the current flats to vacant land in Light Street, extending all the way to Evans Crescent behind. The proposal is for a mix of apartment developments, with blocks of up to eight storeys at the Canberra Avenue end of the development, and two storeys fronting the suburban neighbours in Evans Crescent.
With 146 units there now, the plan at least doubles the number. Officials told residents that no decisions had been made about how many public housing tenants would stay. If they wanted to stay they could usually be accommodated, but public housing tenants "aren't interested in living in the inner south", officials told residents at a meeting in August.
With the Russian Embassy also planning a residential development on its land behind, fronting Canberra Avenue, officials said the embassy had not been prepared to give up the land as part of the government's redevelopment.
Mr Kent urged planners to consider solar access in Manuka. If an eight-storey block was built on top of the knoll at the site, it would dominate the landscape and overlook all of the homes. The plan for a possible two levels of underground parking was fanciful because of the hard rock at the knoll, he said.
The president of the Harmonie German Club, Hanz Stoehr, raised concerns about plans for apartments next to the club, worried that residential development next year would lead to noise complaints against the club.