Race club hopeful of $2 billion greenlight for planning variation

ACT Planning Minister Chris Steel has given a strong indication the club's plan for a multi-purpose precinct will be approved by the government a day after the Greens called for the racecourse to be demolished.

Racing officials are trying to avoid a war of words with Greens MLA Jo Clay, who has called for an immediate end to public funding for the racing industry and is also keen for housing to be built on the Thoroughbred Park site.

ACT Labor has rebuffed Clay's proposal, but the government has previously published an Inner North District masterplan for the site which suggested the racecourse be replaced with a green corridor of trees and housing.

The government said that was published in error, and is now backing the racing club's plan for 3200 dwellings as well as restaurants, cafes and shops on 17 hectares of land to sit alongside racing facilities.

"It is disappointing that the Greens haven't consulted with the Labor party of the Canberra Racing Club about their proposal," Steel said.

"It's also disappointed that, despite all of the work that has been undertaken in consultation as part of the development strategy for Thoroughbred Park, they're now creating some uncertainty over the future of that area.

"There is already government policy saying there should be more housing at Thoroughbred Park as well as continuing racing in the ACT.

"We need there is a need for more housing and this is a great spot for high-density residential around public transport corridors ... We're currently in discussions with the Canberra Racing Club so we're looking forward to that continuing."

A $41 million funding deal between the government, the Canberra Racing Club and the Canberra Harness Racing Club will run through until mid 2027.

Part of the memorandum of understanding included investigating a new permanent base for harness racing, including potential co-location with thoroughbred racing.

But co-location has been scrapped, with Thoroughbred Park keen to develop land on the site to help fund the sport's future.

"We believe [racing] has a future in the ACT, and at Thoroughbred Park there's an opportunity there to work with the club on a financially sustainable model potentially through the development of a masterplan," Steel said.

Clay pointed to racecourse developments in Sydney and Brisbane as reasons to consider demolishing Thoroughbred Park to make way for housing.

"Canberra is in a housing crisis. We need more homes," Clay said.

"We're really interested in looking at the racetrack in Canberra at the moment. That is really, really close to the heart of Canberra, is on two light rail stops.

"We're really interested to see that in a lot of places around Australia, like in Sydney, they're having this really deep conversation about what should be the future of their race track."

The difference in those scenarios is racecourses will be relocated and money generated will be put back into the racing industry.

"This is relevance-seeking, grandstanding from the Greens," Liberals racing spokesperson Mark Parton said.

"... I don't understand why we've started this bushfire about bulldozing a racetrack. To me, it just seems absurd.

"We agree with Jo Clay that Thoroughbred Park is a great location for housing, and that's why we're supportive of the race club's move to develop a bucketload of housing on a swathe of that land. We think that makes a lot of sense."