Almost from the day the Gallagher government proposed it in March 2013, the City to the Lake development has been subject to constant tinkering. It's almost de rigueur for governments to fiddle at the edges of large urban planning projects, especially when public finances fluctuate (as they have since Labor borrowed $1 billion from the Commonwealth to fix the Mr Fluffy problem). However, some of City to the Lake's marquee features – the urban beach, the sports stadium, the convention centre and the lowering of Parkes Way – have an aura of expendability about them.
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The convention centre, heavily dependent as it is on government largesse, looks most susceptible to being jettisoned, and the likelihood of a lakeside pool may be receding fast, too, given Andrew Barr's discussions with the Australian National University about enlarging a pool proposed for Union Court.
The ANU has for some years wanted to revitalise Union Court, and in April approved in principle its redevelopment as a "university village", featuring, among other things, events and exhibition spaces, new student accommodation and an integrated gym and 25-metre swimming pool.
A deal in which the government helps fund construction of a larger 50-metre pool on the old Union Court site has obvious attractions: the university would gain an asset likely to bring more people and activity to its campus, and the government would be relieved of the pressing need to build a pool to replace the ageing Civic facility – and it would have more land at West Basin to sell for lucrative residential developments. That said, the idea is not without potential sticking points.
Getting to the university by car has never been straightforward or routine, particularly when classes are underway. Even with centralised underground car-parking to service the new precinct – which the ANU says it intends to provide – visitors to the new facility may find there's no such thing as "ease of access". Pool-goers reliant on public transport may also rue the closure of the Civic Pool, for it will take a moderate walk to get to the heart of the ANU campus. Indeed, such obstacles may see Braddon, Reid and Campbell residents preferring to use the Dickson Pool instead. That won't be an option in winter, however.
The apparent unwillingness of the Barr government to replace like-for-like represents another potential drawback with any ANU deal. The government's said that Civic's diving and water polo facilities will be replicated at the new pool proposed at Stromlo Forest Park, but what of the volleyball courts, the children's wading pool and the picnic facilities which complement the Civic pool? Such facilities would be easily accommodated at West Basin, but not at the ANU.
For all Katie Gallagher's claims that Canberra will be transformed by the City to the Lake plan, the reality appears to be that the extent of that transformation will be determined by what the government believes it can get away without providing.
