Major Gungahlin project at a crossroads over intersection dispute

The developer behind plans for a major mixed-use precinct in the Gungahlin town centre that include hundreds of homes, high-end shops, a hotel and offices will challenge planning conditions it says would scupper the proposal.

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Englobo Group Pty Ltd has sought a review in the ACT Civil and Administrative Tribunal of the conditions imposed on its development approval, in what will be a significant test of the outcomes-based planning laws adopted in the ACT three years ago.

Multiple towers would rise out of a shared three-storey podium in the Gungahlin project proposed by Englobo Group. Picture supplied

"We worked closely with the ACT Planning Authority throughout the assessment process. However, its decision does not allow us to deliver the project as designed," the company said on its website.

"The review provides an opportunity for that decision to be independently reconsidered in consideration of improved planning outcomes and the social and economic benefits the project would bring to the Gungahlin district and community."

The company said the remaining two development applications were on hold until the outcome of its appeal, which was the only way for the precinct to be built as planned.

The Planning Authority conditionally approved an application for early works on the site in July but required proof the project can work without a proposed upgrade to the intersection of Ernest Cavanagh Street and Kate Crace Street and turning Hinder Street into a one-way road.

The notice of decision said a proposed intersection upgrade was not supported and the project needed to either work without the upgrade or show another off-site solution.

The existing intersection allows northbound motorists to turn left from Kate Crace Street into Ernest Cavanagh Street, and left from Ernest Cavanagh Street onto Kate Crace Street.

The upgrade proposed in the development application would add a right-hand turn from Ernest Cavanagh Street to Kate Crace Street, and allow southbound motorists on Kate Crace Street to turn left into the development site.

The City and Environment Directorate said it had participated in a confidential mediation process in an effort to resolve the problem with Englobo.

"CED participated in the mediation process in good faith and engaged with the matters raised in accordance with the requirements of the mediation," a government spokesman said.

The directorate would consider the outcome of any ACT Civil and Administrative Tribunal case to see if it needed to improve its handling of future development applications, he said.

In 2025, Englobo director John Susa said the proposal had built on years of Gungahlin town centre studies and was only possible thanks the outcomes-based planning system.

"We're jumping to the future of a mixed-use development, but it's not conventional mixed use, which is just a couple of retail shops down the bottom," Mr Susa said at the time.

"This is a fully fledged entertainment precinct at its heart with different uses like office and hotel that complement each other and actually help to underpin the retail. So office can serve and support retail from very early in the morning and the hotels are very late at night."

The more than 16,300-square-metre site is at the corner of Hinder Street and Hibberson Street in Gungahlin (Block 2, Section 11 Gungahlin).

A three-day hearing in the ACT Civil and Administrative Tribunal has been set for early November.

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