The development application for the first 356 homes at Ginninderry was approved despite ACT authorities opposing the removal of trees, and no environmental green light yet from federal authorities.
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The first stage involves removing 20 regulated, hollow bearing and habitat trees. The ACT Conservator of Flora and Fauna opposed the application, saying none of the trees met the criteria for removal.
But it was nevertheless approved by the ACT planning directorate last week, which said all reasonable alternatives had been considered.
Project director David Maxwell said there were 90 regulated, hollow bearing and habitat trees in the first stage, of which 70 would be retained.
The conservator could only approve the removal of a tree in very limited circumstances, mainly to do with safety and damage, whereas the planning directorate also had to consider realistic alternatives.
"It is an unfortunate consequence of the way that the legislation is written... that the conservator is obliged to formally refuse a proposed tree removal in circumstances where the planning authority will be subsequently obliged for practical reasons to set the refusal aside," he said.
The Ginninderry housing development is a joint venture between the ACT government and the Corkhill Brothers, and is proposed also to stretch across the NSW border - although it still needs NSW approval for that.
The removal of trees is just one of the environmental hurdles the development has to overcome, given its location on the banks of the Murrumbidgee River and near Ginninderra Falls, opening an area that has remained largely inaccessible to large numbers of residents and visitors.
The Riverview joint venture has also pushed ahead with selling blocks at the new suburban front in west Belconnen, eventually expected to have 11,500 homes, despite no approval from the federal Department of the Environment. A spokesperson said the department's assessment should be completed this month.
The Ginninderra Falls Association said the development should not have been given the green light before the federal approval, but Mr Maxwell said none of the issues of federal significance related to stage 1.
The application for federal approval highlights the loss of 2 hectares of habitat for the critically endangered golden sun moth in an area earmarked for extending Ginninderra Drive. The ACT government has offered an environmental offset for the golden sun moth, buying land at Wallaroo in NSW that includes golden sun moth habitat.
An important population of pink-tailed worm-lizards also lives in the river corridor, with 16 hectares of the lizard's habitat to be lost to the housing development. The application says a nature reserve will be established along the Murrumbidgee River and Ginninderra Creek covering 550 hectares, including 124 hectares of pink-tailed worm lizard habitat and 62 hectares of box gum woodland. A sewer connection will cross the nature reserve, but the developers say they will build it by "microtunneling" to reduce impact, passing underneath the pink-tailed worm lizard and box gum woodland habitat.
A pair of little eagles nests in the area and its movements are being tracked.
The Ginninderra Falls Association said it was especially concerned about the little eagle pair, which flew from the nesting site to a foraging area near the Molonglo River and into NSW. The building would inevitably discourage the birds from the route, and given that a future stage of housing was planned for the nesting tree itself, development would drive it out altogether. Little eagle numbers had already fallen 70 per cent in Canberra over 20 years because of loss of habitat.
"These large birds need very large nesting trees, which means they are usually over 200 years old and not easily replaced," the group said. "... The impression given is that residential development is more important to decisionmakers than retention of the little eagle in the ACT."
With most of the Ginninderry development to be zoned RZ3, which allows higher-density development than the usual RZ1 zone, the Ginninderra Falls group said most blocks would be too small to provide vegetation coverage and soft ground. "The overall effect will be an increase in heat island effect and runoff and a reduction in the conditions conducive to supporting the little eagle and other birds foraging or food."
The planning directorate decision said a construction exclusion zone had been set around the nesting tree.