Work has started to remove the London plane tree in Manuka that was the subject of a long-running planning stoush.
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Permission to remove the Franklin Street tree was finally granted on Friday after a successful mediation session at the ACT Civil and Administrative Tribunal between the tree's owner, Liangis Investments Pty Ltd, and the Conservator of Flora and Fauna.
The conservator had ruled in May that the tree should not have its protected status removed, effectively blocking a development that had been otherwise approved.
The tree stood in the way of a planned hotel for the controversial site, currently home to the ageing Capitol Cinema building and disused restaurant buildings.
The mediated outcome includes support for flora and fauna in Canberra and a 15-metre high green wall on the new hotel.
The Franklin Street footpath alongside the cinema was closed on Wednesday morning while a large crane was used from the Canberra Avenue side to extract the tree's limbs.
A large pile of mulch had started to accumulate as the tree was slowly cut out of the narrow easement between the two buildings.
Workers on the site expected the 18-metre high tree to be removed by the end of Wednesday.
Sotiria Liangis, whose company owns the site, said she was away from Canberra working on another project and had not had a chance to think a lot about the tree's removal.
However, work was going "full steam ahead" on the new Manuka development, she said.
TIMELINE OF THE TREE
- 1970-1975: Sometime in this period the tree is planted in an easement between the Capitol Theatre and the Manuka post office, according to an arborists' report prepared for the site's owners.
- December 13, 2010: A local resident nominates the London plane tree for protection with an incomplete nomination form.
- December 16, 2010: An initial assessment finds the tree "provides aesthetic and environmental benefits" but is "not located in an ideal position".
- May 1, 2012: Then conservator of flora and fauna, Penny Farnsworth, includes the tree on the ACT Tree Protection Register.
- 2015: Liangis Investments buys the block of land next to the cinema building on the Flinders Way side of the site. The company first bought the Cinema in 1989 after it was redeveloped in 1980.
- November 2, 2015: Liangis Investments applies to the Conservator of Flora and Fauna to cancel the registration of the tree at 15 Franklin Street.
- March 31, 2016: The conservator decides not to grant the cancellation of the tree's registration.
- August 22, 2016: Liangis Investments applies to the conservator for a reconsideration of the decision.
- September 13, 2016: The conservator confirms the application has been refused.
- October 6, 2016: Liangis Investments applies to ACAT for a review of the Conservator's decision.
- November 25, 2016: The ACT Administrative and Civil Tribunal rules Liangis Investments could not apply for a review of the Conservator's decision, highlighting "copy and paste" issues in the Tree Protection Act that did not allow merit reviews.
- August 24, 2017: Then Transport and City Services Minister Meeghan Fitzharris introduces changes to the Tree Protection Act in the Legislative Assembly to allow for merits reviews.
- June 2018: Owner Sotiria Liangis lodges a development application for an "iconic and prestigious" hotel on the cinema site.
- November 2018: ACT Chief Planner Ben Ponton approves the removal of the tree, pending a decision from Conservator Ian Walker on whether to allow it to be struck from the protection register.
- December 2018: The Canberra Times reports the ACT's planning authority ignored the advice of the National Capital Design Review Panel, which recommended against approving the hotel plans.
- January 2019: Inner-south residents raise concerns for the tree's health, after a central column of leaves starts turning brown.
- February 2019: Mrs Liangis calls an arborist who finds a drill hole in the tree's trunk. Mrs Liangis reports the drill hole to police, she later tells The Canberra Times.
- March 2019: An investigation by the government's tree protection unit finds the drill hole but was unable to identify any poison in the hole.
- May 22, 2019: The conservator, Mr Walker, decides to keep the tree on the protection register, prompting Mrs Liangis' son, John Liangis, to lash out at unrepresentative residents' groups who had "weaponised" the process. Mr Walker's decision says there was no evidence of the tree's impact on services, despite large roots breaching a sewerage pipe.
- June 2019: A local business group calls for the tree to go to make way for a "transformative" hotel development.
- July 9, 2019: The Griffith Narrabundah Community Association, which had opposed the removal of the tree and argued that it should be included in future development on the block, calls for greater government investment in Manuka to arrest the decline of the "decaying" precinct.
- July 26, 2019: The tree is cleared for removal after mediation at the ACT Civil and Administrative Tribunal leads to a compromise between Liangis Investments and the conservator.
- July 31, 2019: Work starts to remove the tree.
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Jasper Lindell
Jasper Lindell joined The Canberra Times in 2018. He is a Legislative Assembly reporter, covering ACT politics and government. He also writes about development, transport, heritage, local history, literature and the arts, as well as contributing to the Times' Panorama magazine. He was previously a Sunday Canberra Times reporter.
Jasper Lindell joined The Canberra Times in 2018. He is a Legislative Assembly reporter, covering ACT politics and government. He also writes about development, transport, heritage, local history, literature and the arts, as well as contributing to the Times' Panorama magazine. He was previously a Sunday Canberra Times reporter.
