Planning Panel Clears Town Centre on NSW-ACT Border

Development partners Peet and Mirvac have won approval for a major part of their Googong town centre near Canberra.

The Queanbeyan-Palerang Regional Council signed off on the $44.1-million proposal before sending it to the NSW government’s Southern Regional Planning Panel.

The planning panel last week agreed to the development of two mixed-use retail and commercial buildings including a supermarket, medical centre, gymnasium, more than 20 other retail outlets, including food and drink, as well as three carparks within the town centre.

In a deal signed in May this year, supermarket giant Coles have agreed to be the anchor tenant for retail area.

The panel’s decision also provides concept approval for an adjacent two-storey pub—The Googong Hotel—overlooking the Bunyip Park lakeshores, but the physical construction and associated works are still being assessed under a separate development application.

Mary Kunang, a town planning assessment officer with Queanbeyan-Palerang Council, said in a report to the regional panel last month that the Googong township was a 25-year major urban release area being developed in partnership by Peet and Mirvac, operating as Googong Township Pty Ltd.

The emerging township, with eventual construction costs of about $143 million, is about 8km from Queanbeyan and 15km from the centre of Canberra.

▲ The development partners’ plans call for mixed-use retail and commercial buildings including a supermarket, medical centre and gymnasium.

“It has been planned and is being developed as a freestanding township with five neighbourhoods, around 6600 homes and a population of over 18,000 people,” Kunang’s report said.

“Business opportunities, recreation, significant open space, schools and community facilities are also provided for over the next 25 years.”

Googong township will be developed as one of a series of five neighbourhoods, each broken down into smaller development stages.

The sites for this development, in Neighbourhood Two, were created under a development application approved by Queanbeyan-Pelarang last month, although they have yet to be registered with the NSW Land Registry Services.

Kunang said initial bulk earthworks including grading, stormwater and drainage construction, road construction and tree removal needed to prepare the land for development within Neighbourhood Two—including the town centre—are already under way.

Three carparks will be built under this approval—both undercroft and surface parking—for 448 vehicles.

Queanbeyan-Pelerang and the regional panel were prepared to overlook a 2m breach of the maximum allowable height.

The panel was told although the overall project was within the 16m planning control, a proposed tower element above the entrance of the building was 18 metres.

▲ The planning panel’s decision also provides concept approval for a two-storey pub within the town centre. A development application is still being considered.

“The applicant’s written request to justify the contravention of the height of building’s development standard is considered to be well founded in that the applicant has satisfactorily demonstrated compliance with the standard is unnecessary or unreasonable,” the report said.

A development application for the Googong Hotel is still being considered by council. Online documents posted by BCI Central show the $12.64 million development will include a bistro, lounge, bar, beer garden, three function rooms, a sports bar, and gaming room.

Future stages of the town centre are planned to include a second major supermarket, more shops, residential apartments and a community centre, including a library and council shopfront.