‘Sky Terraces’ Deleted From Canberra Pondside Plans
An eight-storey apartment building planned to overlook a big pond in northern Canberra will have no ‘sky terraces’ as originally proposed if a revised scheme by ACT-based developer Jega is approved.
Out for public comment until May 14 are Jega’s amended plans for a three-building mixed-use project with 164 units, up from 149 units that were approved in August 2024.
The project’s 5478sq m site is at 18 Kingsland Parade in the suburb of Casey, in northern Canberra’s Gungahlin district.
The original design had narrow, 4.5m-wide, two-storey terraces at the top of each building.
Jega had dubbed these units ‘sky terraces’ but they are to be no more, as the developer’s amendment, designed by Cox Architecture, proposes to convert them to wider floor-plate, single-level apartments.
“This increases the dwelling count and increases the liveability and functionality of the apartments,” Jega’s resubmitted documents say.
Planned to overlook a local landmark called ‘Casey Pond’, the approved buildings had already been downsized from an 11-storey, 219-apartment proposal filed in 2023.
Casey is 3km from the Gungahlin town centre where a two-storey medical and surgical facility—reduced from its previously approved six storeys—is also out for public comment, until April 30.
Designed by Braidwood-based architect Hugh Gordon for a vacant and treeless 4607sq m greenfield site at The Valley Avenue, the project is proposed by R&R Medical Australia, directed by Gungahlin general practitioner Abdul Rahman.
The previously approved proposal was for a medical centre, 144-place child care facility, cafe, pharmacy and other commercial uses in a four-storey building with two levels of basement parking.
“The reduction in scale reflects the changing economic climate,” R&R’s new development application says.
The revised plans show that all parking would be outside and at-level, rather than in a basement.
Pathology, medical services, and a 54sq m cafe would occupy the ground floor. On the second storey there would be space for audiology, podiatry, sleep therapy and physiotherapy services but none for child care.
R&R would plant 28 canopy trees across its planned 83-space outdoor carpark that would include bays for 14 medical practitioners.
Rahman and Jega director John Gasson were contacted for comment on their separately planned projects.
