From Planning Notices NT

Sign the petition here: https://www.change.org/p/stop-the-21-storey-development-on-harry-chan-avenue-public-land

Exhibition Period: Friday, 6 December 2024 – Midnight Friday, 20 December 2024
Address: Lot 03981 Town of Darwin
17 HARRY CHAN AVE
DARWIN CITY
Current Zones: MZ (Multi Zone)
Proposed Development: Mixed use development comprising offices, a community centre, a place of assembly, a food premises and a car park in a 21 storey building including 4 levels of above ground level car parking

From NT Independent, 13 November 2024.

Darwin Council will spend more than double the money on a new civic centre than it said it would spend two years ago, as part of a new public-private development deal announced with developer DCOH.

In a media statement on Wednesday, Lord Mayor Kon Vatskalis, who is battling controversy over the council’s Cyclone Tracy memorial, said council would spent $77 million on the building, which would be funded from cash reserves and borrowings.

The 20-storey building will cost an estimated $150 million in total, which will see the council share the building with the developer in a unique arrangement, with both parties owning 10 floors each and council stating it would maintain 51 per cent ownership of the building.

Mr Vatskalis said it was proposed council would occupy 10 floors of the new building, with two floors for customer service, a new library, a new function space, council chambers, public meeting rooms and community space, with three floors of office space for staff.

Five of council’s floors would be used for car parking and building operational space.

Mr Vatskalis said the cost for council included $30 million for internal car parking, with Mr Vatskalis making it appear as if council was providing parking for the whole building: “Importantly, the new building will include approximately 400 car parking spaces that can be used by residents, workers and visitors to the city and our new library”.

“The new civic centre will feature a larger library with an expanded footprint, meeting rooms and function spaces that can be booked by the community, new council chambers, space for a café and an improved customer service centre,” Mr Vatskalis said.

“The existing civic centre has served the community well for more than 50 years but is now unserviceable and a new development is required to meet the needs of the community.”

Mr Vatskalis said the council proposed to build the new civic centre on the car park next to the current building, which would remain operational throughout construction, while the design will “respect and give prominence” to the Tree of Knowledge to protect it.

Council said construction was expected to commence in the Dry Season 2025 and would be finished sometime in 2028.

DCOH managing director Shane Dignan said the partnership highlighted his company’s commitment to growing the Territory.

“With proven expertise in delivering large-scale commercial assets, we are confident in our ability to deliver projects on time and within budget, creating value for the community and our stakeholders,” Mr Dignan said.

“DCOH is committed to 10 floors as part of the civic centre development, including 10,000sqm of Net Lettable Area (NLA), within the project.”

The redevelopment page of the Darwin Council website says that in December 2023, the council sought expressions of interest from prospective partners to develop the centre and an independent probity officer was engaged to oversee the procurement process.

A council press release at the time said proposals should include the provision of 300 car parking spaces for council and public parking and proposed private developments would need to provide for all planning approval requirements within their proposal, inclusive of car parking requirements. The full parking burden now seems to be carried by the council.

Wednesday’s council press release said Darwin Council undertook an extensive community and stakeholder engagement process in 2022, input from which was used to develop the new civic centre’s functional design brief.

In early 2022, the council announced it had committed $30 million to redeveloping the existing civic centre which would house council chambers, offices, a ceremonial town hall that could be used for weddings and official functions, and the library.

A November 2019 Darwin City Deal implementation plan stated the agreement between the Federal Government, Northern Territory Government, and Darwin Council – which was signed in 2018 – would see council give up the land worth $14.6 million for the new Charles Darwin University campus as well as spend $27 million on the underground car park there. In exchange, the council would relocate its council chambers and offices to the new precinct, which was “subject to further consideration of detailed arrangements during the implementation phase of the City Deal”.

The money for the cark park was to be subject to a resolution of council.

It is unclear why this part of the City Deal agreement did not go ahead but there is a still a copy of it on the council website.

At the time of signing the City Deal, Mr Vatskalis was glowing in praise of it.

“The council and I look forward to working closely with our City Deal partners as we take forward this historic agreement that will help grow and transform Darwin,” Mr Vatskalis said.

Below is from the City of Darwin Website, https://www.darwin.nt.gov.au/projects/civic-centre-development

The existing Civic Centre has served the community well for more than 50 years but is now unserviceable and a development of the Civic Centre Plaza is required to meet the needs of the community and City of Darwin staff. 

In December 2023, City of Darwin sought Expressions of Interest from prospective partners to deliver the development of a new Civic Centre.  City of Darwin engaged an independent probity officer to oversee the procurement process. A proponent was engaged to develop preliminary designs to support an application to the Development Consent Authority, which will seek approval to proceed with the construction program to develop a new Civic Centre. 

We are pleased to announce we are working with DCOH to develop the new Civic Centre.  An application will be lodged with the Development Consent Authority (DCA) shortly for the centre’s development.  City of Darwin will retain majority ownership of the building, at least 51%.

The new Civic Centre Plaza will be an inviting place for the people of Darwin, where they can visit, connect with others, and engage in community and business activities and events.  The new Civic Centre will transform the surrounding area into a welcoming precinct with a community plaza that will have linkages to the city centre, Darwin Waterfront and the new State Square. 

The new Civic Centre will feature:

• Enhanced community facilities including a new library with an expanded footprint
• A new Customer Service centre
• New workspaces for staff
• More meeting rooms that can be booked by the community
• A function space with capacity for 300 people; and
• Approximately 400 car parking spaces.

A cool, green community plaza and space for a café will also be included in the development.

The building that you see in the image is a concept design only.

It is proposed that the new Civic Centre be constructed on the car park site next to the current Civic Centre and the existing building, including the library, will remain operational throughout construction.

Construction is expected to commence in the 2025 dry season and completion of the construction is expected in 2028.

From NT Independent 1/4/25

Darwin Council civic centre agreement ‘invalid’ due to failures of ethics and governance: Lawyers

by David Wood | Apr 1, 2025 | Business, News, Subscriber | 1 comment

Darwin Council committed at least 16 “significant” failures of governance under two different pieces of legislation when sealing its secret deal with developer DCOH to build a 21-storey hybrid civic centre-officer tower, lawyers acting for nearby residents have said, with council now asked to hand over hidden documents relating to the development to help inform a potential Federal Court challenge to prevent the building being constructed.

The council issued a press release on Monday, unusually quoting chief executive officer Simone Saunders and not Lord Mayor Kon Vatskalis, announcing the controversial civic centre’s redevelopment application had been approved by the Development Consent Authority, with building works due to commence shortly.

Darwin Council said it would be spending $77 million on its 11-storeys of the new $150 million tower, with developers DCOH funding the rest of the building and owning 49 per cent of it.

However, in a letter sent to Ms Saunders on March 19, De Silva Hebron lawyer Olivia Grace-Hill said the lawyers believed that on the evidence collected, the agreement between the council and DCOH was invalid, and provided a list of 16 alleged failures, including that resolutions were purportedly passed by the council that did not comply with requirements of the Local Government Act, Local Government General Regulations, the council’s own governance framework and bylaws, and indicated there were also breaches of the Planning Act to do with using public car parking money on the building.

The letter was sent on behalf of Geoff and Kerry Nourse, who have commercial and residential property in Harry Chan Avenue, near the proposed site of council’s new headquarters.

The letter added that non-disclosure of critical information about the project, and the proposed redevelopment itself, were contrary to the purposes of the Local Government Act, failing the required high standards of ethical conduct, governance, service delivery, asset management and financial accountability, and the need for councils to promote and assist constructive community participation in achieving effective local government.

Because of the suppression of key information about the development by council, the lawyers also requested council hand over 16 documents within 14 days as part of its “obligation of open democratic government” to allow their clients to decide whether to take further action, and apply to the Federal Court to seek preliminary discovery.

Those documents include all internal and external reports and business papers on the redevelopment, all council meeting minutes, the design brief given to developers through the expression of interest, documents showing the council’s consideration of the EOI, the council’s costings of the redevelopment, documents showing why the council made the meetings and documents about the redevelopment confidential, and the agreement between council and the developer.

“Matters were improperly declared confidential to prevent public scrutiny of the redevelopment, including notices of meetings and business papers required to be published under Section 93 of the Local Government Act, meetings required to be open to the public under Section 99 of the Local Government Act, and minutes of meetings required to be published under Section 102 of the Local Government Act,” the letter states.

“The non-disclosure of these matters impeded, in fact, prevented the public’s constitutional right of freedom of communication on political and governmental issues.

“The non-disclosure of those matters will have been made in bad faith and invalid if made for the purpose, or even partly for the purpose, of preventing public scrutiny of the redevelopment.

“That non-disclosure was contrary to the underlying principles of the Local Government Act, that the system of local government needs to be comprehensive, democratic, responsive to community needs and accountable both to local communities and the public generally, and that anyone exercising power or performing a function under the Act must, as far as practicable, hold those principles.”

The letter further claimed the redevelopment itself defeated the role of council under the Act to be a representative, informed, and responsible decision maker providing open, responsive, and accountable government acting in the best interest of the community as a whole.

The council has said it would be spending $30 million from two reserves which can only be used for public car parking, and $17 million from the sale of the Cavenagh Street car park to Charles Darwin University to build its city campus.

In the letter, the lawyers said that spending money from one of those reserves, the developers’ car parking shortfall fund, breached the Planning Act which required the money collected there to be used by council on public car parking infrastructure.

The council plans had shown there would be 460 car parking spaces in the building, but the Development Consent Authority had ruled 258 of those were required under the Planning Act to service a building of its kind and size, with the remaining spots considered part of the so-called public car park.

Ultimately, the council is spending $47 million creating 202 public car parks, but it is losing 65 existing public car spaces in the car park the building is going to be constructed on top of. It also lost 391 spaces with the sale of the Cavenagh St land.

The lawyers said spending the Cavenagh St money also breached the Planning Act because that money was also subject to a trust for car parking purposes.

The council’s Car Parking Contribution Plan, which is required under the legislation to detail how it would spend the developers’ car parking shortfall fund money, showed the council was to build a multi-storey 800-space car park on the Cavenagh St site.

The Car Parking Contribution Plan had not been updated to show the money would be spent building a civic centre with some public car parking.

“The cost of each car parking space in the proposed building is around $130,000, more than six times the current developers contribution of $20,637 per space,” the letter said.

In Monday’s council press release, Ms Saunders said the civic centre would have a larger library, as well as meeting rooms, and function spaces that can be booked by the community.

“Once complete, the new building will feature approximately 410 car spaces, owned by City of Darwin, that can be used by residents, workers and visitors to the city as well as an improved customer service centre,” she said.

Ms Saunders has previously said the developer would own the other 50 car spaces. It is unclear if the developer is paying into the developers’ car parking shortfall fund for the other roughly 80-car spaces it would be responsible for providing under the Planning Act.

Council did not answer a request for a response to the allegations made by the lawyers, by the time of publication.