The Gardens is a small suburb almost hidden between the Botanic Gardens and the Stuart Highway. A tight nit community has chosen to live here, supposedly out of harms way. They are now literally campaigning to save their community from destruction by high rise development. On Saturday 30 August, about 100 of them rallied close to the proposed site. Lot 7820 is at the corner of Blake Street and Gardens Hill Crescent (look it up in a directory if you don’t know where).
A yellow sign alerted them to a Planning Notice for the following:
To rezone Lot 7820 Town of Darwin (4 Blake Street from Zone CP(Community Purpose) to a Specific Use Zone
This means there has been an application for a lot officially zoned for a community use to be rezoned for the construction of a development. In this case, the ultimate objective is to build two nine storey apartment buildings which would be totally out of character with the suburban area. It has a mix single detached dwellings, and modest one to two storey town houses, perhaps with the odd three storey.
Full details of the proposal, and how to object, are under ‘Details of Proposed Planning Scheme Amendments’.on the internet at ‘NT Planning Notices’, or ‘One Stop Shop NT’.
Closing date for objections is 12 September 2014
The decision is to be made by the minister for Planning after a hearing by the Development Consent Authority at which all objectors can attend and speak. Local residents are objecting strongly to the prospect of Community Purposes land being taken for development, and see this as the ‘thin end of the wedge’ for the complete destruction of their much loved suburb and community which they have invested in, and call home.
THE GARDENS COMMUNITY would welcome more objections based focussed on the use of Community Purposes zoned land for residential densification. (See also more details below).
There is a email address for supporters to contact: SaveTheGardens@gmail.com
Please download/print out the following document:
