The long awaited city plan for Canberra has come as a “disappointing” draft, lacking vision and with “little detail”, according to the Property Council of Australia.

The plan needs “much more work” before it will be an integrated, settled master plan, the council’s ACT executive director, Catherine Carter, said.

“There is still little detail provided about government intentions in relation to future development in Civic,” Carter said.

The draft action plan includes parts of Braddon, Turner, Reid and the lake northern foreshore. Some of these areas include designated land under the control of the National Capital Authority, but it is not clear that there has been coordination between the two levels of government about future development of these areas.

A master plan is “urgently needed” to provide certainty about future sequencing of development, so that the decisions can be made about future commercial investment opportunities, employment and accommodation options in Canberra’s central business district, Carter said.

“Given the extensive amount of consultation undertaken by government in recent years around these issues, as well as the large number of planning studies that have been undertaken, it is therefore disappointing that we do not yet have a real vision and action plan for Civic.”

The 60-page plan, released by chief minister John Stanhope on Friday, offers possible strategies for dealing with a doubling in the number of city residents from 5,200 to 10,400 by 2016, along with a 25 per cent increase in workers during the same period.

Prepared by the ACT Department of Land and Property Services, the draft plan also questions what transport links, services and parking spaces the city will need.

One of the keys to "building a stronger City heart" is to marry future designs and plans with ongoing population growth anticipated over the next seven years, Stanhope said.

"Much of the city's public infrastructure is almost 40 years old, and paths, lighting and design of the open spaces need to be adapted to increasing changes in the urban character," he said.

The plan also makes some areas formerly peripheral to the city integral to the city's urban form.

"The action plan aims to contribute significantly towards that and, in time, will help determine the level of public investment appropriate to the Greater Canberra City over the coming years."

The consultation period for public input into the plan ends Tuesday 16 March 2010.