Plans for the construction of a community sports facility on the Lyneham Neighbourhood Oval have been pulled following anger over the proposal aired at a meeting on Thursday.
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The ACT government and Brindabella Christian College have been slammed for a lack of consultation over the plans to redevelop part of the oval.
The college lodged a development application at the end of October to build a two-storey sports pavilion and 120-space car park on land next to its site on Brigalow Street.
While the ACT government is not a proponent of the project it had to endorse the development application as the custodian of the land.
The school leases a section of the oval from the government and wants control of an additional piece of land to facilitate the construction of the community facility.
The college has now withdrawn the development application.
Tempers were fiery at a meeting held at the school on Thursday evening as residents expressed their anger about a lack of consultation over the proposal.
Concerns were also raised about the plans showing preschool rooms, traffic implications, the accessibility of the facility for the community and the loss of open space.
Government and school representatives confirmed that there would be no preschool in the facility and said lease conditions would stipulate shared use between the college and the Lyneham primary and high schools.
The facility would be available to the community outside school hours through a booking system with sections of it open all the time for those using the oval.
ACT Sport and Recreation Minister Shane Rattenbury has supported the school's decision to withdraw the development application and urged further consultation with the community over the proposal.
Brindabella Christian College had already extended the public notification period and held a public forum on the proposal as a result of complaints from Lyneham residents.
Brindabella Christian College board deputy chairman Greg Zwajgenberg said the board would clear up the confusion over some parts of the plans and deal with the concerns of residents before lodging the development application again.
He said the facility would be a win win situation for the community but the school did have a fallback plan to build it on another part of the campus if the proposal fell through.
Mr Zwajgenberg said the board had previously decided to wait on the outcome of Thursday's meeting before making a decision to withdraw the application.
"Last night's meeting clarified that that approach needed to take place," he said.
Mr Zwajgenberg said the college hoped the development could encourage the government to irrigate the oval again following the decision to switch off the water during the drought.
"The idea of producing a facility that serves the community and enables the delivery of Lyneham Oval back to green is a really important way forward to preserve the open space that's there," he said.
The school has an existing sub lease for 7760 square metres of the oval and will expand the land it holds to 11,168 square metres under the proposed new leasing arrangement with the government.
The college has $800,000 of Commonwealth funding for the project and is allocating internal funds of between $8 million and $9 million for the facility.
Brindabella has also applied for a $500,000 grant in federal pre-school funding under the Block Grant Authority that it would put towards facilities on its existing campus if successful.
