Turner Place development to be renamed as Yarralumla resident shares concerns of the project's name choice

A Yarralumla resident recently wrote to the ACT government opposing the name of a new development in Turner.

Turner Place, a 418-unit project planned for Northbourne Avenue, could be confused with Turner Place, an existing street in Yarralumla, the resident said.

It is understood the complaint was passed on to the developer of the Turner block, Amalgamated Property Group, which promptly confirmed they would be changing the name.

In response to questions from The Canberra Times, a representative of Amalgamated Property Group confirmed Turner Place was a temporary name and a hangover from the Suburban Land Agency's marketing of the block.

"The name 'Turner Place' was a site reference which was inherited from the SLA. We have continued using this during the community consultation period to limit confusion to the inner-north community associations who have long had dealings with the site under this name during its sale, planning and demolition," they said.

The representative said a new project name had been selected and it would be announced with the project's launch and market release.

Crisis averted in this case but it wouldn't be the first instance of a double-up of names in Canberra.

A new Canberran might accidentally end up at the Knightsbridge apartment complex in Kingston, rather than the nightclub version in Braddon.

One could easily confuse the Avenue apartments at 77 Northbourne Avenue with the Avenue Hotel at 80 Northbourne Avenue.

Some may roll their eyes at the audacity of a resident opposing a development name in a completely different part of the city but according to the ACT government, there is some validity to their concern.

An ACT government spokesperson said duplicate place names, including building names, can cause addressing confusion and lead to delays in the delivery of goods and services, including emergency services responses.

Developers are not required to seek ACT government approval for the name of a project on territory land, the spokesperson said.

"It is up to the developer to ensure the name they choose is unique," they said.

However the Office of the Surveyor-General and Land Information, which is responsible for allocating street addresses, encourages property owners to consult with ACT Place Names before selecting a building or development name.

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"The Place Names team can assist property owners/developers with advice about unique addressing in the ACT and non-duplication of existing property names," the ACT government spokesperson said.

The Place Names team discourages the use of road types within building names, such as rise, terrace and court, to avoid building names being confused with road names.

Once a name is decided, it can be added to the ACT Cadastral Database and displayed in ACTmapi, the spokesperson said.

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