Recurring blackouts, development applications, traffic congestion, public transport, and local parks and amenities are top of the list whenever I visit Casey. Let me know what’s important to you in the comments below or reach out directly.
Hosting a shop stall at Casey Market Town is always a pleasure. Casey residents are some of the nicest and most engaged. They are interested in what is happening in the suburb and city and are willing to stop to discuss.
Below is what I am hearing about so far. If I’ve missed anything, let me know in the comments, online, or at Casey Market Town.
Recurring blackouts
Residents of Casey, Ngunnawal, Moncrief, and Taylor have been experiencing power outages at a disproportionate rate. Evoenergy previously had a standing notice at the top of their outages page addressing this. The notice implied that the infrastructure in the area was both faulty and insufficient. Evoenergy stated the below:
Evoenergy is managing ongoing network faults affecting customers in parts of Casey, Taylor, Moncrieff, and Ngunnawal. Since February, electricity outages have increased in these areas, occurring for a range of reasons and, most recently, exacerbated by the cold weather and increased load on the two main feeder cables supplying power to the area.
Gungahlin reliability works (evoenergy.com.au) 21st June 2024
Their mention of increased load leads nicely into the next major topic raised in Casey.
Densification and residential towers
UPDATE: The third development application for the three towers at 8 storeys each has been APPROVED. Nobody who raised concerns about this development was against the additional housing it would bring. People have concerns about the impact this development will have on the already strained resources in the area. These are genuine and reasonable concerns.
A residential complex in Casey with three towers, the tallest of which would have been eleven storeys, was proposed, and rejected. It was resubmitted to be two storeys shorter. A second round of consultation and a second round of community objection led to a second rejection. Plans are currently in the works to reduce the number of storeys again, this time by one.
One of the concerns raised repeatedly is that the infrastructure in Casey won’t be able to cope with the additional load – power, traffic, schools, and more.
At a recent Gungahlin Community Council meeting, a Greens MLA encouraged the community to continue to lodge objections to further development applications citing “people power” as the reason the planning system works. I questioned why it was the community’s responsibility to enforce planning regulations but received no answer.
One resident in particular stands out in my mind. She spoke with vigor about the issues she saw this development would bring, and who she felt would benefit from it (spoiler: not the community). Another politician had described her as clearly passionate, and she objected to that. It wasn’t passion, it was that the community was sick of feeling bullied by property developers and a government that was powerless to enforce their own planning regulations.
Traffic congestion and public transport
A problem all over the outer suburbs of Gungahlin, peak hour traffic congestion in Casey is considerable, and public transport options come up lacking. Residents have been complaining of 90+ minute commutes via public transport, due in part to poor connecting services, and services not heading where people are wanting to go. When we have the Light Rail to leverage, we should be able to achieve better than that.
Local parks and amenity
In yet another case of “I’ve heard this one before”, when blocks in Casey were first being sold, bowling greens, community parks, and vibrant amenity were in the sales brochure. After all the land was sold, the fine print was shown to read “potential use”. The flagship sales office at Springbank Pond was once mooted to become a waterside cafe. Instead, Casey got yet another unimaginative childcare centre.
The Casey Community Recreation Irrigated (for now) Park is finally delivered – right in time for an election. I live in Crace, and our “Community Recreation Irrigated Park” quietly dropped the “Irrigated” as the irrigation system wasn’t meant to be a long-term feature. I asked at a Gungahlin Community Council meeting if the irrigation was staying long term. We were told the government decided to no longer irrigate community recreation parks; however, they would make an exception for Casey. Hopefully, someone can hold them to that.
A long-term discussion in Casey has been the land opposite the Market Town. This has often been spoken about as community facilities, however the zoning for this would allow that conversation to be ignored. As in 2020, I propose facilitating an indoor sports facility to be part of whatever is delivered here.
Casey residents just want what they were told they would get.
Actions
- Liaise with Evoenergy to ensure energy infrastructure is sufficient to meet current and planned demands.
- Support residents affected by blackouts to receive any entitled compensation.
- Defend the Territory Plan on behalf of communities
- Conduct a traffic review across all of Gungahlin to determine problem areas and identify solutions
- Support the development of a world class indoor sports facility in Casey