QIC says its latest proposed expansion of the Canberra Centre will make the city. The ACT Greens fear it will break it.
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In the Legislative Assembly today, the Greens will move for a more independent assessment of the impact big businesses like QIC have on small businesses.
In August the Council of Small Business of Australia slammed an impact statement which backed QIC's latest expansion, saying it was nothing more than a promotional document.
The council said the Government had allowed QIC to choose its own consultants, who had found that proposed new offices, apartments and shops, including a full-line supermarket and big homemaker centre, could boost trade rather than generate adverse impacts. The consultants said this would strengthen the city's retail base, activate street frontages and provide more parking. But the council fears it will cripple small businesses.
The Government is yet to approve the development in Cooyong Street.
The Greens' motion proposes the Government's Environment and Sustainable Development Agency (formerly ACTPLA) should appoint independent consultants to assess the impact on small businesses of large commercial developments, rather than allowing QIC to appoint their own.
The Greens want the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission to join a discussion about minimising land and retail dominance in planning. Greens planning spokeswoman Caroline Le Couteur said if allowed, the latest expansion would increase QIC dominance with another 11,000sqm of retail space.
Meanwhile, on the city side of the mall at Centrepoint, former tenants had repeatedly accused QIC of turning the cluster of shops into the city's ''dead heart'' by buying up spaces and leaving them empty. Ms Le Couteur said the Greens had twice asked QIC if these rumours were true. They would neither confirm nor deny them.
''The mall is dominating Civic in a way that is not healthy,'' she said.
''A big problem in planning is ownership. Our planning can't make a determination from an ownership point of view.
''To my mind it is a real competition issue, the dominance of one retail area in Civic.''
Civic had been divided in two - those in the mall, and those outside of it, and if the mall was allowed to grow bigger it would have an even bigger influence over rents.
Ms Le Couteur said the CBD Ltd board, established through a city centre marketing and improvements levy, did not include tenants as representatives. She said tenants inside and outside the mall should belong to the board.
The motion would call for the enforcement of lease conditions at Centrepoint and get the owners to help revive the city centre. The second aspect of the motion was aimed at improving Civic's amenities.