The ACT government is on track to release more than 170,000 square metres of extra land than expected this financial year, alongside a $40 million spike in projected land revenue.
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The Land Development Agency is expected to exceed its target for the release of community land by more than 90,000 square metres in the current financial year due to plans for a new school in the Molonglo Valley suburb of Denman Prospect.
Setting aside the land will raise the agency's 2015-16 target of 57,154 square metres of community, non-urban land to 147,229 square metres, ACT Budget papers released on Tuesday show.
The agency also expects to release nearly 500 extra residential dwelling sites and an extra 80,000 square metres of commercial land in the 2015-16 year.
Land revenue is also expected to jump to $597,164,000, almost $40 million more than the $557,802,000 budgeted a year ago.
More revenue is on the cards with $629,801,000 projected for the 2016-17 year.
Upcoming land releases in the next financial year include another 131,404 square metres of community, non-urban land, another 4550 residential dwelling sites, 12,811 square metres of commercial land and 30,000 square metres of industrial land.
The government has attributed the existing excess land to a number of extra releases over the 2015-16 year.
The release of extra residential land is largely due to additional dwelling sites released in the new suburbs of Moncrieff (210) and Throsby (90). This will offset a delay in the release of 300 sites in Taylor to allow for the construction of a reservoir in the suburb.
An extra 514 dwelling sites have also been released in Coombs to offset other delays, including 250 such sites in West Belconnen and another 168 in Forrest, the latter due to delays in obtaining appropriate planning approvals.
The release of 2001 dwelling sites at Denman Prospect has increased available land by 300 dwellings, while another 259 dwelling sites in Parkes have been deferred and rolled into the City to the Lake project.
Another 510 additional sites are expected in Kingston alongside the Kingston Foreshore arts precinct project.
New residential releases in the next financial year will include the Canberra Brickworks site in Yarralumla and detached housing sites in the suburbs of Throsby, Taylor and the first stage of West Belconnen.
The government is also set to release more than 88,000 square metres of commercial land by July this year, up from a target of 57,194 square metres.
The increase has been linked to the 40,295-square-metre mixed use site earmarked for the Kingston Foreshore arts precinct and another 147,000 square metres to the redevelopment of the former Allawah public housing site in Braddon.
Another 8367 square metres was allocated to the government's Office Accommodation Project in the city, with expressions of interest for the new government office set to open soon.
Commercial releases earmarked for the 2016-2017 year include a supermarket and other retail in Moncrieff.
Other new releases over the same period include community land for a new government school in Taylor, and three sites suitable for childcare in Charnwood and Curtin.
The LDA needs to obtain environmental and planning clearances for future mixed-use industrial land releases in Majura, Fyshwick and Symonston, including feasibility studies for the Canberra Avenue corridor.
Symonston is set to be the first cab off the rank with the release of new land in the next financial year.
