The ACT government will not rule out developing land on the west side of the Murrumbidgee River, first proposed in the Commonwealth's original zoning for the Tuggeranong Valley.
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ACT Liberal senator Zed Seselja resurrected the idea on Saturday, saying Tuggeranong's development had suffered since a decision before self-government not to continue developing proposed suburbs to the north of Tharwa.
''That has skewed the geography of the town centre - the town centre is not in the centre of the town, it's on the western edge,'' Senator Seselja said.
Asked on Sunday whether the ACT government was looking at land to the west of the river, Land Development Agency chief executive David Dawes said the ''immediate priority'' was the new ''SouthQuay'' for 1500 residents on Lake Tuggeranong.
Mr Dawes said demolition was also about to begin on the former Urambi school site, which would then be developed as accommodation for older people.
A spokesman for the LDA declined to comment further.
Canberra architect David Flannery condemned the push over the river.
''It is now widely appreciated that extending urban sprawl is an uninformed, senseless and destructive methodology for providing much-needed housing,'' Mr Flannery said.
As Australian Institute of Architects' ACT chapter president in 2009, Mr Flannery warned of greenfields housing in Canberra's north progressing much faster than redevelopment occurring in the inner suburbs.
He said residential development on the fringe of the city, where every journey from home had to start in a car, required additional expensive infrastructure and services and ensured the irreversible destruction of a beautiful natural environment.
''Developing new suburbs out there will have zero impact on
revitalising the Tuggeranong town centre, put more cars on the road and add to both air and river corridor pollution.
''Relying, as Senator Seselja does, on the fact that Canberra's Y-Plan (developed by the National Capital Development Commission in the 1960s) labelled this area as a possible suburban development precinct, is like medical researchers relying solely on the way we understood medicine in the 1960s for modern disease management.''
But architect and planning advocate Jack Kershaw supports Senator Seselja's push.
''Apart from the town centre's location being chosen for that scenario, there's an existing wide road reserve linking the southern end of the parkway to Kambah Pool Road, and onto a planned bridge over the Murrumbidgee well upstream of the pool's recreation areas,'' Mr Kershaw said.
A bridge west of the town centre was also planned. ''There would be no urban sprawl effect because the expansion… would be relatively close to the Tuggeranong CBD.''