Protect Community Land: Ensure Transparency, Accountability, and Public Benefit
🟡 Public Hearing Details
Please come to the public hearing for the Proposed Planning Scheme Amendment — PA2024/0408 — seeking to rezone Lot 11258 (7) Waratah Crescent, Fannie Bay from Zone MR (Medium Density Residential) to a Specific Use Zone.
WHEN: 23 July 2025 — 9:30 am
WHERE: Wanaka Room, Level 2 Energy House, 18 Cavenagh Street, Darwin
This is an open hearing — all members of the public are welcome to attend. Show your support for keeping community land for community needs.
Sign the petition here: Protect Community Land: Ensure Transparency, Accountability, and Public Benefit
Why the Proposed Rezoning of 7 Waratah Crescent to a Specific Use Zone Is a Problem
🟡 Context & Core Issue
• The Planning Commission has advised that the Land Development Corporation (LDC), as the freehold titleholder of 7 Waratah Crescent, is entitled to apply for rezoning , including for commercial residential development, like any other landowner.
• But the LDC is not a private landowner or private developer. It is a Northern Territory Government entity. The land at 7 Waratah Crescent was given to the community over 50 years ago and was actively used for community purposes until 2013, when it was rezoned from Community Purposes to Medium Density (MR) residential despite massive community opposition.
• In 2014, LDC acquired freehold title via an internal government transfer — with no public notification or consultation.
• From a community perspective, 7 Waratah Crescent remains public land. It is held in public custodianship by a public body and should be developed in ways that deliver public benefit, not just commercial returns.
• After Sports House was demolished in 2015 to make way for private residential development, the land has remained vacant and unused.
• The first LDC housing development proposal failed due to lack of commercial viability.
• The current proposal is also questionable, with weak expressions of interest during the exhibition period — suggesting low industry confidence.
• Over one million dollars in public funds have already been spent — with no outcome.
• No transparent or meaningful assessment has ever been made regarding alternative uses that would meet pressing community needs, such as:
• Affordable seniors housing
• Aged care facilities
• Public green space
• Sports and recreation infrastructure
• This rezoning would permanently close the door on those possibilities.
🟡 1. Special Purpose Zoning Is Being Misused
• Clause 1.8 of the NT Planning Scheme states that Special Purpose (SP) zoning is for uses not typically envisaged in other zones.
• This proposal is not a special use — it is a luxury freehold terrace housing subdivision that does not comply with existing Medium Density freehold residential planning controls.
• Increasing numbers of developments are applying for SP zoning inappropriately — this sets a dangerous precedent and undermines the integrity of the planning system.
🟡 2. Traffic and Parking Risks
• Waratah Crescent is already facing severe traffic and parking pressures.
• This dead end cut-de-sac is home to Pearl Retirement Village and Supported Care, housing a community of vulnerable older residents who require unimpeded ambulance access.
• Adding 70–100 extra vehicles daily from the proposed high end residential subdivision will cause bottlenecks and increase the risk to residents’ health and safety.
🟡 3. Governance and Accountability Gaps
• Unlike similar interstate agencies, the LDC:
• Has no governing Act
• Has no legal obligation to demonstrate public benefit
• Operates as landowner, developer, and planning proponent — without separation of powers
• This creates a serious risk of more and more public land in the NT being repurposed without transparency, accountability, or public oversight — highlighting the need for statutory reform to ensure land historically zoned for community purposes is protected and continues to serve the needs of the community, not private profit
🟡 4. Community Opposition Is Longstanding and Ongoing
• The community strongly opposed the 2013 rezoning from Community Purposes to Medium Density.
• The community continues to oppose this latest rezoning to Special Purpose — a move that shifts public land into private, high-end residential use without public benefit.
• The land was given to the community and the community has never consented for its use for a private high-end housing estate that does not comply with the planning code.
The Privatisation of 7 Waratah Crescent – Land Historically Zoned Community Purposes
7 Waratah was crown land historically zoned for Community Purposes and used that way for decades – it remained crown land even after the NT Government rezoned it in 2013 despite massive community opposition. This changed in 2014 when it was – converted to freehold title.- privatised so it could be sold to private developers.
How did this happen?
According to the 2024–2025 LDP Outlook Report, the Land Development Corporation (LDC), a Northern Territory Government development body, “purchased 7 Waratah Crescent from the NT Government in 2014 for market valuation,” thereby acquiring freehold title to this land. This was not a genuine contract of sale but an internal NT Government transfer so there’s no public record of any open tender process, no detail on how the “market valuation” was calculated, and no public notification of the intention to transfer . The rezoning of 7 Waratah Crescent to medium density residential in 2013 was a necessary legal step that enabled the Land Development Corporation to convert the land from crown land historically zoned for community purposes into freehold title so it would be able to then offer the land for sale to private developers. Had the land retained its original community purposes zoning, it would have remained legally restricted from such a transfer or privatisation. Under the NT Planning Scheme Land zoned for Community Purposes is intended for public and not private or residential use. Without prior rezoning, any attempt to transfer or develop the site for private residential purposes would likely have triggered public notification, planning approval requirements, or legal challenge — all of which were avoided by rezoning the land in advance. The 2013 rezoning thus removed the planning restrictions and administrative safeguards that would otherwise have constrained or delayed privatisation.
More Statutory Protections for Community Land in Other States
Unlike the Northern Territory, other Australian states have clear laws that protect land set aside for community use. These laws require public consultation, transparency, and proper oversight before governments can rezone or sell such land.
The Northern Territory still lacks these protections. The 7 Waratah Crescent case shows how easily community land can be privatised in the NT—first through rezoning, then through an internal transfer to the Land Development Corporation, converting it to freehold private title “owned” by the LDC, which can then offer it for sale to private developers.
Public funds for private Development
In 2016, the LDC spent 185,000 of public funds on a design concept for 7 Waratah Crescent, with no outcome. The 2024–2025 LDP Outlook Report notes the site was offered to the private sector but the development “struggled to deliver a commercial return.” This money was in addition to the $692,848.70 of public funds used to demolish Sport House in 2015—a still-functioning community sports facility.
The current terrace housing design concept, which does not comply with existing planning regulations and therefore requires rezoning to Special Purpose to proceed, has so far cost $147,000 in public money—covering consultants, designs, marketing, and engagement. This level of public investment in a private residential development project on land historically set aside for the community would be unlikely to occur in other states because statutory safeguards would require public exhibition, social impact assessments, and transparency in funding decisions—preventing governments from internally rezoning and disposing of such land without scrutiny or justification.
As the EIOs received by the LDC in June from private building partners are reportedly “weak,” this suggests industry doubts the commercial viability of the current design—like the 2016 proposal. Weak EIOs indicate low market confidence in the proposed development and reduce the likelihood that it will proceed, even if rezoning is approved.
The rezoning application is still going ahead . A public hearing has now been called . Please join me in calling for reform and stronger statutory protections for community land in the NT