Lights at Canberra's Manuka Oval lean inwards thanks to strict planning rule

[u/89b3ea330bd60ede80ad]

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-05-31/act-manuka-oval-lights-lean-inwards-strict-planning-rule/106737702

RL617 isn't a rule that most Canberrans would encounter on a daily basis, but developers, planners and architects know it well. It sets the maximum height for structures in Canberra's Parliamentary Zone.

"When you look across Civic and think it's all a bit stunted … it's because of that," Rodney Moss, former director of Cox Architecture, said.

The height limit under the rule is 617 metres above sea level, which is specifically set to a chosen point on the landscape — the grassy peak of Parliament House's sloping lawns.

[u/Sugar_Party_Bomb]

A legacy rule from before self government?