The state of Civic - our central business district - has long been an issue for traders, and the Canberra Business Chamber last week called for Andrew Barr’s government to commit to rejuvenating the precinct.
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Also in the news last week, the City Renewal Authority announced a tender for a feasibility study to explore the costs and benefits of a new underground city bus interchange. This would free up the land currently occupied by the sprawling bus depot that dominates several blocks.
The two moves are part of a concerted push to get some movement on what should be a priority issue for the Barr government.
Civic has become a series of its disjointed precincts, a domineering central shopping mall, and dilapidated heritage buildings clogged with buses and barely-visible businesses.
The business chamber’s city revitalisation push is outlined in its submission to the government’s 2019-20 budget. In it, it maintains Civic is “not fit for purpose”, describing the precinct as “haphazard at best, with pockets of dilapidated and unused infrastructure”.
It’s hard to determine exactly what has kept Civic in stasis for so long, although plenty have made efforts to focus on renewal over the years. Garema Place, which should be a vibrant central plaza, has failed to live up to the hopes of Canberrans.
In the meantime, business owners are now applauding the City Renewal Authority’s apparent move to act on a plausible - if lef
t-of-centre - idea. Even if an underground bus interchange turns out to be unfeasible - and a proper business case needs to be presented before it progresses - the idea is worth exploring.
Indeed, it is projects like this for which the renewal authority was established in the first place. Chief executive Malcolm Snow and his team face inevitable backlash - often in the form of knee-jerk reactions from a public already disgruntled by the length of time it has taken for the light rail project to take shape, and for the number of major infrastructure projects that have seemingly been shelved by government over the years.
Let’s build a new theatre to stage large-scale productions and bring hundreds more theatre-goers from the region into Canberra. Let’s start work at last on a new convention centre, and a sports stadium. Costs will inevitably be high. But, as the president of the ACT Property Council George Katheklakis pointed out last week, it might actually be worth it.
“Sometimes what may seem like a more expensive exercise provides a greater return to the city as a whole,” he said.
“As soon as you close down ideas because you don’t like the idea of it, or you assume something is going to be unfeasible, I think that’s closing your mind to what the opportunities are.”
It’s time, then, to start opening our minds to Canberra’s possibilities. And if ever there was a time to start addressing the state of our city centre, it’s now.
