City Renewal Authority to explore 'Melbourne style approach' to Civic

Laneways and back alleys would be used for outdoor dining as part of an ambitious plan to attract visitors and residents to the CBD.

With foot traffic data revealing a post-COVID bounce back, plans are afoot to revamp the city's heritage buildings and attract new businesses to empty shop fronts.

Riverside and Hillside lanes off Ainslie Place, as well as Tocumwal Lane, have been identified as locations where cafes could set up for the day and pack of an evening.

Rejuvenation of the "bit dusty" Melbourne and Sydney buildings has also been a focus with red tape cut for the more than 60 owners to incentive leasing out the prime real estate. Light rail construction has already seen some properties change hand for the first time in a long time, according to city planners.

The department responsible for the transformation, the City Renewal Authority, has redrafted the heritage conservation plan to pave the way for owners to more easily spruce up the buildings.

For their part, the authority will paint the facades of the buildings, cream and white in keeping with existing scheme, beginning in the second half of the year.

Chief Executive Officer Malcolm Snow was Head of Design with the City of Melbourne when they were tasked with attracting people back to a CBD suffering the effects of big retail malls.

Mr Snow said people wanted to dine outdoors post-COVID and the city's laneways and climate lent Canberra that possibility.

"A Melbourne-style approach to how we view the city centre is there for us to explore," he said.

"If I was to summarise them, the key moves that we're working on to address and sustain liveability in Canberra, is really to say that we must first have more people living here."

The Property Council of Australia has reported Canberra's population was around 447,000 in 2021, and expected to increase by more than 110,000, or around a quarter by 2036, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics 2022 projections.

Higher-density living in the city and inner suburbs is central to the ACT government's planning policy, having recognised the limitations of expanding out.

Mr Snow said the prediction was that by 2045 an additional 30,000 people will be living in the relatively small precinct.

"I'm a big believer in density and I am a big believer in density for a city like Canberra," he said.

Mr Snow said the city's he likes to visit offer a very intense experience.

He said Canberra needed to move on from the highly car dependent planned city where, at the time it was laid out, it was imagined that oil use and production would go on unrestrained forever.

Canberra's winter provided a unique opportunity to utilise Civic Square for things like the ice rink, he said.

"We have a very clear hierarchy in Canberra centres, but government has quite correctly made the decision that there needs to be one place easily accessible in the centre of the city, which offers maximum opportunities for not only locals, but also visited," Mr Snow said.

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With Sydney forecast to lose more than 38,000 and Melbourne 32,000 in the last 12 months, Mr Snow said Canberra had opportunity to capitalise on the demographic shift, without losing what made it one of the world's most liveable cities.

"It's really important we have density but at the same time create a sense of place that, not only welcomes everyone, but provides everyone in society, every citizen in our city with an opportunity to reach their potential, I'd argue city centres are the place where that should be," he said.

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