The ACT government wants to push through approvals for a new access road to the planned Canberra Brickworks housing estate without having to do a full environment impact assessment.
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The site, off Dudley Street in Yarralumla, is home to the critically endangered golden sun moth and some nationally significant patches of natural temperate grassland. It is also near Dunrossil Drive, which leads to Government House.
The ACT Planning Minister Mick Gentleman can exempt the site from needing an environmental assessment if he believes sufficient environmental studies have been done already, but any work there still needs the approval of the National Capital Authority.
Doma will build about 380 new homes at the historic brickworks behind Yarralumla, with access off Adelaide Avenue, via Dudley Street, then across what is now open space.
The government has notified its request for an exemption, with comments open till October 5.
The application says the site contains some nationally significant grasslands and 7.4 hectares of habitat for the critically endangered golden sun moth, of which 3.17 hectares would be impacted.
The government plans an offset to make up for the habitat damage, using a section on the corner of Flemington Road and Wells Station Drive in Franklin, with work there to cost just under $500,000.
The plan in Yarralumla is to widen Dudley Street from six metres to 10, and build a new road off Dudley Street to connect to the brickworks.
The submission said the new housing precinct would generate an extra 2400 car movements a day on Dudley Street, on top of the 7500 vehicles using the road each day now. The wider road would cater for for 9000 vehicles a day.
It proposes a new roundabout to connect Dudley Street and the new road. Uriarra Track, the pedestrian path, would be moved about 10 metres, an option that would have a bigger impact on regulated trees but is judged “a balance between cost and functionality”, especially for cyclists.
The report canvassed various options for the access road, including options that minimised the loss of trees but had a greater impact on the golden sun moth. It chose a road alignment that impacted more mature pine trees but avoided the higher quality sun-moth habitat, instead traversing a more fragmented habitat. The option "minimises the direct disturbance of matters of national environmental significance as golden sun moth and natural temperate grassland do not generally inhabit shaded areas of trees".
In all, 92 trees would be removed. The report says while the trees provided "little ecological value", they were a visual and physical barrier between the Adelaide Avenue corridor and Dudley Street.
The closest homes Kintore Crescent and Demand Street 60 metres north of Dudley Crescent, and apartment blocks near the Novar Street roundabout, 40 metres east.
The application concedes some impact on the view from Dunrossil Drive used by dignitaries to get to Government House, with loss of existing pine trees and views of the new roundabout.
Doma Group won the right to develop the Yarralumla brickworks site in April last year. Doma was chosen from five companies, shortlisted to two. It beat a consortium made up of the Coda Property Group, Lendlease and Canberra Contractors for the right to develop the 16 hectare site.
While an earlier plan in 2015 was for 1800 homes in a large suburban development, including eight-storey buildings, it attracted major opposition and was effectively killed off after the National Capital Authority raised concerns.
The government drastically reduced the development site from 49 hectares to 16 hectares and building heights to a maximum of three storeys.
Subject to approval, construction is expected to begin this year and take about 12 months. The access road will open before the brickworks precinct is built.
