Planning knockback should be seen as an opportunity

It will also no doubt be met with incredulity from some of the public, and questions over how the rundown, concrete blocks, regarded an eye-sore by many according to the planning minister and labelled "slum-like" by the head of Capital Metro, could be considered worthy of preservation.

While only one of the Dickson Towers and a number of significant trees are to be preserved, the bigger risk the decision poses is that it may form a precedent that seriously crimps the government's plans for the area's revitalisation. The flat that has been marked not for demolition is part of a corridor of significant post-war public housing stretching from Morphett Street in Dickson to Wakefield and Macarthur avenues, and further unfavourable heritage rulings have the potential to send planners back to the drawing board.

The more-than 1000 apartments that were planned to go into the redevelopment of the corridor – nearly 10 times the number of current dwellings – was a deliberate strategy to put more residents on the tramline, thereby boosting its viability and any hope of making it financially viable.

Should the Dickson decision be repeated elsewhere along the route, it has the potential to create a further financial black hole that the government can ill afford, given it is already battling to defend the financial assumptions made in the light rail business plan.

While it is easy for many to dislike the curious 1950s concrete boxes that sit along our most important gateway, there do need to be limits on development that prevent the loss of important buildings. If, as has been claimed, these buildings do have value, then it is up to the government to find clever ways of incorporating them into their designs for the area.

There are already good precedents. Before the redevelopment of the New Acton area, the former Hotel Acton had sat boarded up, behind wire fences for years, run down and unloved, yet full of historical importance as one of the city's first major hostels.

A sympathetic refurbishment has seen it transformed into one of the most desirable, upmarket hotels in Canberra, one that pays respect to the original form of the building. Likewise, the Whitely houses in Griffith, regarded by the ACT Heritage Council to be significant because they were some of the first government-designed and built single-storey detached houses in the Functionalist style in Australia, have been transformed into modern apartments that still respect and preserve much of the original facades.

Similarly, the Dickson Towers could be transformed into something great, if the appropriate creativity, sympathetic design and clever architecture are applied. Too many bland, functional residential and office blocks of little architectural merit have been allowed to go up in recent decades. There is a risk that as our city grows, it loses some of the charm that sets it apart from other bigger cities. The opportunity to take a quirky piece of Canberra history and turn it into something great should be viewed as an opportunity, rather than a setback.

There are good reasons for residents of the inner North to be concerned at plans to dramatically ramp up the infill program of recent years. If rushed, there is a potential to repeat the mistakes of the past, and replace many poor quality buildings on our most important thoroughfare with yet more, low-quality design.

The government's vision for reform is bold and overdue, and no major construction project of the scale of Canberra's light rail can be expected to go through without running into numerous unexpected setbacks along the way. This will surely not be the last.