A community group has demanded an inquiry into the master plan for a new town centre they say ignored their feedback.
The master plan for the new Molonglo Valley Town Centre was released last week, and described 7000 new homes built around a "commercial core", complete with an education precinct, public library and a police station.
The Molonglo Valley Community Forum, however, says the plan will create a ghost town where people sleep overnight, but will have to leave for work and services.
"The biggest concern that we've got is that the feedback that the community has given to them - it seems to have just been ignored, and they've gone for the simplest strategy," Molonglo Valley Community Forum convener Tom Adam said.
The Molonglo Valley Town Centre will be the first new town centre in about 30 years, and is planned to service the 70,000 people expected to live in the Molonglo Valley by 2050.
The master plan, released by the Suburban Land Agency on Thursday, May 28, said it would be following the "traditional and proven" town centre design.
Mr Adam disagreed.
"It looks like it's just a group centre with a town centre name wrapped on it," he said.
The Molonglo Valley Community Forum has formally asked the ACT's Legislative Assembly's Standing Committee on Environment and Planning to open an inquiry into the Suburban Land Agency's decision-making process.
Mr Adam felt that the Suburban Land Agency had prioritised revenue over community.
"We want to know how that conversation's played out because we feel that they're focused on just getting maximum dollar and not the maximum outcome for a community," Mr Adam said.
The standing committee has confirmed it has received the letter and is considering an inquiry but no decision has been reached.
The Molonglo Valley Community Forum is concerned the new town centre will be a repeat of the Coombs shops, which sat empty for years after it was developed in 2018.
Mr Adam said the Molonglo Valley town centre master plan was similar: a "big box" surrounded by apartment buildings, with little integration between the two.
The forum wants compulsory commercial spaces on the ground floor of those apartment buildings where small businesses could operate, and a guaranteed anchor tenant to encourage those family businesses in.
"We don't need just one shopping centre," Mr Adam said.
"We need cafes, cars, restaurants, lawyers, hairdressers, martial arts school, dance schools. We need tyre shops."
"Right now in the Molonglo Valley, if you want to go and do something, you have to go to the Wright shops, you have to go to the Coombs Shops, you have to go to the Denman shops. Those are all really spread out."
The Suburban Land Agency took the opposite position. Its master plan outlines a strategy of inviting smaller businesses in at the start with flexible shopfronts and community facilities, with the potential for the space to be used as a larger shopping centre as the population grows.
The first land released to developers would be at the southern end of the site for residential builds, Suburban Land Agency chief executive Adam Davey said.
"Everyone wants shops, that's important, but the people that run the businesses need the people to support them, it's just getting that balance right," he said.
Mr Davey said mandating commercial spaces on the ground floor of apartment buildings would not be possible until the plan was put through the development application process, and that community consultation would continue as the plan moves ahead.
He rejected claims that the agency prioritised money over the community.
"The intent of the master plan is to deliver the scale and amenity that will serve the community that's there now and the community of the future," he said.
The plan for the town centre was based around a "vibrant main street" with a local and rapid bus route, connections to active travel pathways and pedestrian-friendly amenities, he said.
The plan includes over 8000 square metres of speciality street-based retail space, 17,000 square metres of large format retail, 10,000 square metres of office space and 2,500 square metres of hospitality space, he said.
"The commercial office space could support up to 1000 employees," Mr Davey said.
"If you think about the mix of retail, commercial trades, hospitality, that's significant employment."
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