Canberra district strategies reveal where ACT government expects employment will grow

New ACT government documents have provided a glimpse into how the city, and your district in particular, will change in the years to come.

The nine draft district strategies show where the government expects populations to grow, and how it will prioritise infrastructure and employment opportunities.

What's happening has been broken down in each district, but the reports give some important, big-picture information about where we are likely to be working in the decades to come.

There will be another 85,000 jobs in Canberra by 2046, and an additional 57,000 between 2046 and 2063.

The Inner North and City, as well as the Inner South, will maintain the largest share of those jobs - as of 2016, they held 29 and 22 per cent of the jobs respectively.

This can pose problems for the city's development though, it creates a "disconnect" between where people live, and their relative access to work, and can be a challenge for people who live in areas with less access to jobs and public transport.

The government wants to tackle this by setting aside more commercial space in local and town centres, and improve transport connections.

Canberra Business Chamber chief executive Graham Catt said the territory needs to be an attractive place to do business in order to grow jobs.

Tax breaks, making land available, reducing commercial rates and direct investment can all be targeted to attract employers.

"I think before we come down to the district level, it really is ensuring that where we're getting the settings right and making sure that the territory's attracting businesses and attracting the investment in the businesses," Mr Catt said.

Here are more details on how you can expect your district to change in the coming years:

The region is home to about 30 per cent of the city's jobs, and while numbers are going to increase quite a bit, its share of the overall job numbers will remain pretty steady.

The government is keeping the focus on the city as Canberra's main employment hub, while Dickson will continue to play a key role too, and overall jobs in the area could shoot up to just under 110,000 by 2063.

The government isn't concerned about very average office occupancy rates (54 per cent in September) - people are still renting floorspace, they say, so nothing to worry about.

They will take "a careful approach" to mixed-use and residential developments in the city to make sure commercial space is safeguarded.

They will also follow through on plans to create an entertainment precinct, which basically means there will be changes to noise regulations to encourage more nightlife.

Delivering the light rail corridor from Alinga Street to Commonwealth Park will be key in the next five years, and plans for the Belconnen-Airport link, which will travel through the city, will also bring more people in to work.

The government will prioritise industrial and urban services functions in Fyshwick, despite pressure for conventional retail and commercial development, and alongside west Deakin, these will be the key areas for employment growth.

In Deakin, which is a strong health sector employer, building height limits could be lifted to open up new employment opportunities, and the urban design of the area could also be improved.

Jobs in the area could grow to more than 80,000 by 2063, from the current share of 49,130.

Home to the airport and Brindabella Business Park, the government wants to keep East Canberra focused on employment.

About 60 per cent of the 14,960 jobs in the region (as of 2016) are knowledge intensive, and it's predicted that will grow to an even stronger 66 per cent by 2063.

The ACT government is also at odds with Canberra Airport over jobs growth in the area: the airport says there could be 36,000 at the airport alone by 2040, while the government predicts a baseline of 25,000 jobs by 2063.

Not much more is said about this head-scratcher of a gap, except there's a need for ACT-wide research on jobs growth that "realistically apportions future employment by location".

This area could also be key in dealing with a looming shortage of industrial land - the ACT will need another 330 hectares of that by 2050.

Environmental studies are taking place on a chunk of land which surrounds part of Majura Parkway, skirting Mt Ainslie and Mt Majura reserves, which could house more industrial uses.

Despite its growing population, Belconnen will trail behind the inner regions for jobs growth. Most of the new jobs are expected to be in the town centre. While each of the group centres are expected to expand, Kaleen and Ginninderry are tipped to peak in 2046 but not see any extra positions in the 17 years after that.

Future employment could grow to more than 46,000 jobs by 2063, with the latest data putting that figure at 28,370. Its share of the territory's overall jobs will drop slightly.

In the next 20 years, the government will also look at connecting the town centre to the light rail, with a route that would run to Civic and the airport.

Nearly 20 per cent of the ACT population live in Gungahlin, but the district only holds 6 per cent of the territory's jobs, the latest data shows.

The only town centre without a federal government department, residents have been pushing for this to change for years now.

It could be a fast way to inject hundreds to thousands of jobs into the area, and stimulate the businesses surrounding them.

The territory government can't make big promises on this, but they do plan to try, saying "targeted collaboration with government departments" will be one of their priorities in the next 10 years.

They will also seek to change the territory plan in the next five years to preserve spaces in the town centre for jobs.

With new suburbs such as Whitlam still being built, there were only 320 jobs in the district in 2016, just 0.1 per cent of the total job share.

That could reach more than 11,000 by 2063, but beyond delivering the Molonglo group centre, the ACT government isn't sure how it will grow employment opportunities in the area.

It says the delivery of the group centre and future local centres will boost jobs, but makes a note that establishing an employment base for the district will be key to "re-balancing" employment opportunities across the territory.

James Calagos manages the only two venues in the district, and said growth will be a good thing all round.

"The business actually can hardly keep up with the volume of customers that comes in," he said of Morning Dew cafe in Denman Prospect.

"They're not used to having a pub in the middle of the suburb," Mr Calagos said of the other venue, Honeysuckle. "They're used to going to Woden, Belconnen and Civic, so the residents of the Molonglo Valley are really happy."

Most of the staff at the pub are locals, he said.

"As a resident of Denman Prospect myself, I can see the suburb is really growing really fast."

Nature-based tourism and recreational activities could be one answer, because of the close proximity to Stromlo Forest Park and the National Arboretum, and the group centre could provide accommodation and commercial space for operators to work from.

The government will work to improve local job opportunities over the long term, with its population of 89,461 only having access to about 18,700 jobs, according to the most recent data.

Over the next decade, there will be an effort to attract more tertiary education providers to the town centre, to build on the Tuggeranong CIT campus.

A commercial office strategy and a look at the capacity for more commercial floorspace in Conder, Calwell and Chisholm will also be on the cards in the next five years.

A potential light rail connection in the long term could connect Tuggeranong with Woden and the city, and improve job accessibility.

The district held 4200 jobs in 2016, and this is also expected to increase only slightly, to 5600 by 2063.

The Weston group centre is the economic hub for the district, and vacant sites in and around it will provide opportunities for small-scale office developments with residences above them.

Upgrades to Streeton Drive are being planned in the next five years to improve safety for drivers, cyclists and pedestrians.

Rapid transit connections to Woden and Molonglo Valley will also be considered over the next decade.

In Woden, the primary employment areas will continue to be the Woden town centre and Canberra Hospital precinct, with floorspace to be preserved in the town centre for employment opportunities as residential demand increases.

The district held 10 per cent of the territory's jobs in 2016, and that figure of 23,030 could grow to just under 40,000 by 2063.

The delivery of light rail stage two will also drive more employment opportunities in the town centre, with extensions to Mawson and Tuggeranong also to be investigated.

Phillip Business Community president Tom Adam said a light rail extension to Tuggeranong would mean businesses outside the town centre were not forgotten.

"It's really making sure that the plan doesn't focus too much on one area, to the detriment of the Phillip business precinct," he said.

"Which is really starting to tire and age and and look like it's not had any attention, whereas north of that you can see new buildings going up."

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