Services around the Parliamentary Triangle are still not good enough with paid parking for the area less than five months away, the federal government has conceded.
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The National Capital Authority said it was "critical" that transport and shopping in the precinct improves before tens of thousands of public servants are charged $11 a day to park their cars there from July 1.
There was some cause for hope on Thursday for beleaguered bureaucrats working in the triangle with news that the area's first supermarket could be operating in Barton by early next year.
But the authority conceded that efforts to get other areas of the national precinct open for business, most notably in the defence hub at Russell, had been patchy.
In front of a parliamentary committee on Thursday, the National Capital Authority's new chief executive, Malcolm Snow, threw down the gauntlet to the ACT government's transport planners to provide adequate services for the government workers in the triangle.
"We encourage them [ACTION buses] to continue to improve service provision to the national capital," Mr Snow told the multiparty committee. "At the time when they start paying for parking, that's the time we think it's critical that those alternatives, particularly around the use of public transport, should be promoted."
On the broader question of amenity, Mr Snow conceded that the fears of a parliamentary inquiry into paid parking - that facilities in the triangle were not good enough to justify the charges - were still valid.
"We recognise that, as the findings of that inquiry identified, the significant employment base in that area does need to be serviced by a greater range of uses," he said.
Mr Snow said there was some cause for optimism with more developers becoming interested in building shops.
Developers have been in talks with the National Capital Authority for several months about plans for a supermarket in Barton, which would be the only shop of its kind in precinct.
Property groups Morris and Doma are working on a joint venture to build a multi-storey car park on Blackall Street in Barton behind the Australian Federal Police offices. The developers have a shortlist of grocery operators who want to move into the 600-square-metre supermarket area on the ground floor.
Doma Group's Jure Domazet told The Canberra Times on Thursday that checkouts could be open early next year, and that smaller retailers would feature in the development. "It's not massive, but it's not trying to be a Mecca; it's more of a convenience store, and that's where the demand seems to fit," Mr Domazet said.
"We spoke to some of the majors and there's not support because it will be more of a weekday business.''
National Capital Authority planning chief Andrew Smith said efforts to attract "amenity" to other areas of the triangle, before workers in the area face parking charges, have had a mixed response.
"The NCA wrote to concession holders … who had facilities … in the parliamentary zones or Russell advising them of the committee's concern and letting them know that, under current planning frameworks, there was no difficulty in extending the options for their businesses,"Mr Smith told the committee.
"We talked about opportunities for dry cleaning and the like, and expanding their product line, so we made sure that all of those proprietors knew there was new business opportunities available."
Mr Smith said the best hope for better shopping for Defence workers at Russell was to wait for mixed use schemes at Constitution Avenue at Campbell to come on stream.
