An artist’s impression of the proposed Moncrieff Village, showing the pedestrian link between the shops and apartments. Images: Clarke Hopkins.
A development application has been lodged for a major new shopping centre in the growing district of North Gungahlin.
Supermarket giant Woolworths has proposed a Moncrieff Group Centre that not only includes a 3748 sqm retail and commercial precinct, but also includes medium-density housing, in line with ACT Government policy, and a centrepiece park.
The $106 million Moncrieff Village proposal involves the subdivision of the 26,000 sqm Blocks 1 and 2, Section 22 Moncrieff, bounded by Horse Park Drive, Mirrabei Drive and O’Keefe Avenue, into two new blocks.
One will be for the two-storey shopping centre, and the other for a five-storey apartment block containing 42 units next to the shops, as well as 52 two- and three-storey townhouses.
The planned landscaped park will run from Horse Park Drive to O’Keefe Avenue, effectively separating the shops and apartments from the townhouses.
The shopping centre will include a full-line 2500 sqm anchor supermarket, 1327 sqm of speciality retail, 1231 sqm for health facilities, 500 sqm for an indoor recreation facility and 153 sqm of commercial space.
The retail and commercial tenancies have been designed with an adaptable floor plate, giving future occupants the flexibility to easily reconfigure spaces to accommodate alternative tenants or a greater number of smaller tenancies, with minimal renovation.
A basement carpark of 238 spaces will serve the shopping centre – including accessible, EV-ready and EV-charging spaces – while 66 under-croft parking spaces are proposed for the apartment block, including visitor and accessible EV-ready ones, two motorcycle spaces, 46 bicycle spaces and end-of-trip facilities.
The 42 apartments – comprising 12 one-bedroom, 26 two-bedroom, and four three-bedroom units – will be generous in size, measuring 60 sqm for one-beds, 100 sqm for two-beds, and 149 sqm for three-beds. Sixteen will be affordable and six adaptable.
Five types of townhouses will be pitched to families, with most being three- and four-bedrooms.
The five two-bedroom, 46 three-bedroom and one four-bedroom townhouses will all have courtyards and detached garages, totalling 100 spaces.
On-street parking amounts to 42 spaces, for an overall total of 446 spaces for the group centre.
Vehicle entry to the undercroft and basement parking will be via two vehicle crossovers off O’Keefe Avenue, while a loading dock for trucks serving the shops will be accessed from Mirrabei Drive.
Shared driveways will provide access to the townhouses off O’Keefe Avenue.
After the subdivision, an easement will allow vehicles to access future Block 1 from O’Keefe Avenue via the access ramp serving the basement parking area.
The development will require the removal of 15 verge trees along Mirrabei Drive and O’Keefe Avenue, but there will be extensive landscaping across the site, particularly at the centre park.
The park will include a stepped plaza, a tree grove, a nature playground, a creek walk, a sloping lawn and a forested edge. A pedestrian lane between the shops and the apartments will link the park to Mirrabei Drive.
The DA says the planting strategy prepared by Square One Landscape Architects focuses on using carefully selected native species that will help reinstate local vegetation by mimicking the natural composition of surrounding landscapes.
The DA is open for comment until 8 July.
Original Article published by Ian Bushnell on Region Canberra.
