The newly formed community group Friends of Manuka Pool has rejected as unacceptable the revised bid by Greater Western Sydney Giants and Melbourne developer Grocon to redevelop the Manuka Oval precinct.
“The revised proposal goes nowhere near allaying community concerns,” Friends President, Dr Clive Hamilton, said today. “The monstrous scale of the original proposal was clearly an ambit claim so the revised proposal probably gets closer to what the developers always wanted.”
Just two week ago a meeting of more than 350 residents overwhelmingly rejected the GWS/Grocon bid and called on the ACT Government to release its Manuka Oval Master Plan. “Weren’t the developers listening,” asked Dr Hamilton.
“Those residents are now not likely accept this latest cynical bid. GWS and Grocon ought to prepare for a long, hard fight.”
“The developers’ approach to community consultation has been manipulative from the start,” he said. “Now we are expected to be grateful they have decided not to take a large portion of Manuka Pool’s lawns even though they are heritage listed and protected from development.
“We are sick of being treated like mugs,” Dr Hamilton said.
Friends of Manuka Pool also notes that the revised bid:
- still plans to build seven-storey apartment blocks looming above the pool and its lawns raising privacy concerns
- at seven storeys would set a new height precedent for all of Canberra Avenue which is currently limited to four storeys
- would demolish heritage-listed School of Music buildings
- would takeover parking areas at Kingston foreshore and arts precinct to shuttle fans to big games, driving out visitors to those areas.
“The bottom line is that this development will ruin the ambience and amenity of the entire precinct,” said Dr Hamilton. “Encircling Manuka Oval with flats and offices makes no sense when Phillip Oval is perfectly placed to be developed to host AFL and test cricket matches.”
Friends of Manuka Pool 