A company wants to build a solar farm on the same block as the proposed south Canberra cemetery and crematorium, upsetting local residents and horse riders who fear the loss of the open paddocks.
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But the proponent believes its project won't affect the use of the paddocks.
Territory and Municipal Services confirmed the cemetery and crematorium is on the same block as the proposed solar farm but said there was a significant distance between the two projects.
A proponent represented by Beacon Hill Consulting is seeking a direct sale from the government of two parcels of block 1677 in Tuggeranong for a solar farm. It is doing preparatory planning in the hope it wins a contract from the government to provide large scale solar generation.
The cemetery and crematorium is slated for blocks 1676 and 1677 in Tuggeranong but expected to take only about 50 to 60 hectares of the total 226 hectares on the southern side of the intersection of Mugga Lane and Long Gully Road.
The block was once set aside for a gas-fired power station and data centre but the project was relocated further north after a campaign by residents in the lead-up to the 2008 election.
Beacon Hill Consulting general manager Ross McKay said his client wanted to build the proposed solar farm on two parcels fronting the Monaro Highway and did not believe it would affect the horse paddocks or the cemetery. The proponent has not released publicly the size of the proposed solar farm.
Government Paddock User Group secretary Jane Hedges said about 20 per cent of horse paddocks in the ACT had been swallowed up by industrial and residential projects in the last five years and she wanted the government to quarantine the remaining 16 government paddocks from future development.
Mrs Hedges said any loss of the horse paddocks off Mugga Lane, known as the Rose Cottage paddocks, would be devastating. Ninety per cent of horse riders who used the paddocks were women and it was a valued means to keep active physically and socially.
''We can't keep developing every paddock. We have to keep some of them,'' she said.
Canberrans for Power Station Relocation president Bill Reid said the group was still active despite it achieving its aim of having the power station and data centre moved. Mr Reid said yesterday the group was against any development of the horse paddocks saying they were meant to provide a buffer between residential and industrial areas.
Beacon Hill Consulting and ActewAGL have asked the National Capital Authority to prepare a development control plan for land in Tuggeranong for possible solar farms. The ActewAGL site is part of blocks 1470 and 1471 off the Monaro Highway near the intersection with Williamsdale Road.
The authority's chief planner Andrew Smith said the draft plans had been prepared to guide the future development of the sites within the National Capital Plan and the Territory Plan. The authority published the draft plans yesterday for public comment until July 20.
In January, the government asked renewable energy companies to bid to provide large-scale solar energy to the territory. Companies were invited to submit proposals for up to 40 megawatts.
A spokesman for Environment and Sustainable Development Minister Simon Corbell said yesterday there was a shortlist of 22 companies seeking to provide the first stage of up to 20 megawatts.
The draft development control plans can been viewed at www.nationalcapital. gov.au/haveyoursay.
