A campaigner who opposed an enlarged Coombs development says he lives in hope that revised plans for the multi-unit project will better suit the community, but described the process as "horrendous".
POD Projects and the ACT Planning and Land Authority reached an out-of-session agreement that requires revised plans for an apartment building, at the Arthur Blakely Way and Colbung Street intersection, that was the subject of intense community opposition.
Ryan Hemsley, a Wright resident who established the "Save Molonglo" Facebook page, said he was disappointed by the outcome but it was too early to tell whether the community would be satisfied until the plans were made public.
He said the process had shown holes in the territory plan, which governs planning across the ACT.
"If [the ACT Planning and Land Authority] can't even be confident of their own decisions, and unit developments such as this can potentially be approved over the existing framework, I think it really underlines the importance of that upcoming Molonglo Valley planning review," Mr Hemsley said.
"That's a massive gap in the planning framework, if these sorts of developments can technically legally be built. We obviously want to see why the existing regulatory framework allows that to happen."
The authority knocked back earlier plans for 107 units on the site, which was originally sold as a development site for 40 units, saying the increase was not in the public interest.
But POD Projects challenged the decision in the ACT Civil and Administrative Tribunal, where an agreement was reached before any hearings.
The maximum height for the new plans was five metres, with a maximum of 97 units along with increased parking.
The planning authority believed there was a "reasonable prospect" of the plans being approved in a tribunal hearing, a spokesman said.
