The ACT government needs to do more to ensure recreational land, including golf courses, are not lost to development by forcing site owners to comply with planning rules or imposing stronger consequences, a former National Capital Authority chief planner has said.
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David Wright, who is now secretary of Pitch and Putt ACT, said he was concerned the pitch and putt course at Narrabundah could be lost if its owner is allowed to close the neighbouring Capital Golf Club with no consequences.
Mr Wright said the link between the leasehold system - whereby long-term leases for all land in the ACT are issued with strict requirements on the block's use - and the planning system had been broken.
"These problems aren't new, but we haven't ever solved them. Worse than that, we haven't even tried," Mr Wright said.
Members of the Capital Golf Club were told on September 6 the course would be closed on September 30 and there was no new operator for the site.
Mr Wright said he feared the pitch and putt course, across the road from the golf club but owned by the same company, could also be closed in the future if the government failed to take a more interventionist approach to securing community facilities.
The nearest pitch and putt course if the one at Narrabundah were to close would be in Sydney and Wagga Wagga. There are presently no plans to shut the pitch and putt course.
"It is time for the ACT government to stop the land speculation in the city's recreation facilities. It has purposely diluted the leasehold system - a system that was adopted deliberately for the national capital to avoid such destructive activity," he said.
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Mr Wright said the trend towards a "highest and best use" approach for land in the ACT left recreational facilities at risk, pointing to examples of other clubs seeking to redevelop parts of their land for a profit.
"The time has come for the ACT government to look to the broader interests of the community, rather than sharing the spoils of a change in lease purpose clause with lessees who have entered into a treaty (with the community) to use the land for a specified purpose," he said.
Mr Wright said there should be no expectation the Capital Golf Club could eventually be redeveloped for housing and if it shuts as planned, the government should consider resuming the lease and approaching the market again for a new operator.
Sotiria Liangis, whose Liangis Investments Pty Ltd owns the Capital Golf Club site's lease, told The Canberra Times at the time she was "sick and tired" of keeping the course open due to mounting costs.
Mrs Liangis said she was not sure what the site's future held.
The Canberra Times on Friday asked Planning Minister Mick Gentleman whether he would consider taking action against recreational land lessees but were not making the facilities accessible and what options the ACT government had available to ensure lessees complied with lease purpose clauses.
An ACT government spokesman did not answer the questions, but said any proposal to change the use and purposes allowed on the Capital Golf Club site at Narrabundah would need a variation to the Territory Plan, the crown lease and development approval.
"The independent planning and land authority has advised that they are not currently considering any development application for the site and that there is no active approval to redevelop the course," the spokesman said in a statement.
A proposal to use at least some of the course for residential infill development put forward by the site's previous owner, the Vikings Group, was rejected by the then planning minister, Andrew Barr, in 2010.
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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.
