AN OPEN LETTER
TO MR COLIN BARNETT, MR JOHN DAY & MR ERIC LUMSDEN
to be published in the West Australian
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To.
Colin Barnett - Premier
John Day - Minister for Planning
Eric Lumsden - Chair, WA Planning Commission
There is a planning crisis in South Perth which affects the entire City by altering irreversibly the skyline of Perth and by setting precedents for ad hoc, ill-considered planning decisions across the metropolitan area.
In the past few months, 6 hi-rise developments between 20 and 40 storeys have been approved in South Perth by the State Government appointed Metro Central Joint Development Assessment Panel (JDAP). These developments were opposed by local residents and are contrary to community expectations. They are completely out of character and out of context with the immediate residential area, in some cases being some 4 to 5 times higher than neighbouring properties.
"Directions 2013 and Beyond" released by the WA Planning Department promised that the Urban Consolidation Plan would ensure that "the attractive character and heritage values within suburbs are retained" and that higher density housing would be "of a scale of design and development that integrates into the surrounding neighbourhood".
This is not happening in South Perth and elsewhere !
Each of these inexplicable planning approvals was based on recommendations made by a small group of planners within the City of South Perth who are interpreting the Schedule 9 of the City’s Town Planning Scheme (which came into effect in 2013) as allowing "unlimited height" developments in designated parts of the South Perth Station Precinct. This interpretation, however, is contrary to the public consultation material for the Station Precinct Plan underpinning the Scheme. Advertising material for the Station Precinct Plan and Amendment No.25 to the Scheme made no mention of "unlimited height" and instead indicated that the future of South Perth would be medium height developments of between 4 to 14 storeys with merely a suggestion of "relaxation" of prescribed height limits in certain areas in order to encourage commercial development. There was no indication to the residents of South Perth that the Scheme would be relied upon to rush through high rise developments of principally residential apartment blocks which would vastly exceed the prescribed heights and would turn South Perth from a village community into something to rival the Gold Coast.
The Scheme was supposed to introduce more intense medium density gradually, through stepped development, in keeping with established planning practice. Instead there has been an unholy rush to accept whatever heights and plot ratios developers have submitted, without any proper account taken of the character-changing impact on the amenity of South Perth including views and overshadowing or the cumulative effect of the traffic congestion (both locally and along the Freeway), or the parking problems and the disruption to the local and wider community which will be caused by so many dwellings in a small area.
The latest of these JDAP decisions, in relation to 74 Mill Point Road on the Mill Point Peninsula, is particularly incomprehensible given that the ratepayers of South Perth in a Special Electors Meeting on 6 May overwhelmingly opposed the development and resolved that the part of the Mill Point Peninsula on which the proposed development is situated should be excluded from the South Perth Station Precinct (so that heights in the Peninsula would be restricted to no more than 8 storeys). The residents also asked for Council to institute the long overdue Local Planning Strategy and amend the Scheme so that there could be proper regulation and consideration given as to where and how future development would be appropriate. All elected Councillors of South Perth also indicated their opposition to the development in a separate Council meeting before the JDAP decision. They resolved to appoint a consultant to consider the amendments to the Scheme and the boundaries for the Station Precinct. Instead of waiting, however, until that process was concluded and declaring the development application premature (as properly and orderly planning principles dictated) the JDAP simply approved the development.
Is the South Perth Council acting unilaterally to change irrevocably the character of South Perth with high-rise or is this being carried out with the endorsement of the State government? There is no publicly available material from the Western Australian Planning Commission to suggest that there is currently a WA government mandate to override the publicised medium density Precinct Plan in South Perth, and sneak in high-rise, through ad hoc developments through the JDAP process. If there is such a mandate, however, the public has a right to know about such major and character-changing policies before these high-rise buildings are approved and change the landscape of Perth, with no proper forewarning.
There are many planning and legal reasons why the development application at 74 Mill Point Road should have been refused but there are also wider community issues at stake. The planning chaos and failure of democracy in South Perth affects everyone.
These new developments will loom high above the Peninsula and become the dominant feature of what is currently the sweeping unique vista of the Swan River from King's Park. Many cities have tall buildings but Perth has something unique in the world which will now be expected to play second fiddle to the vanity of developers.
Where there is currently an overwhelming sense of the grandeur of nature and the beauty of the Swan River below the quiet grace of the War Memorial, soon we shall look instead upon a sea of domineering towers (as others which will inevitably follow).
They will serve as a monument to greed, short sightedness and poor planning!
We, the undersigned beg you to come to South Perth and see for yourself the appalling legacy which you will be leaving to all residents of Perth and would ask you to do everything in your power to rectify the situation.
Colin Barnett - Premier
John Day - Minister for Planning
Eric Lumsden - Chair, WA Planning Commission
There is a planning crisis in South Perth which affects the entire City by altering irreversibly the skyline of Perth and by setting precedents for ad hoc, ill-considered planning decisions across the metropolitan area.
In the past few months, 6 hi-rise developments between 20 and 40 storeys have been approved in South Perth by the State Government appointed Metro Central Joint Development Assessment Panel (JDAP). These developments were opposed by local residents and are contrary to community expectations. They are completely out of character and out of context with the immediate residential area, in some cases being some 4 to 5 times higher than neighbouring properties.
"Directions 2013 and Beyond" released by the WA Planning Department promised that the Urban Consolidation Plan would ensure that "the attractive character and heritage values within suburbs are retained" and that higher density housing would be "of a scale of design and development that integrates into the surrounding neighbourhood".
This is not happening in South Perth and elsewhere !
Each of these inexplicable planning approvals was based on recommendations made by a small group of planners within the City of South Perth who are interpreting the Schedule 9 of the City’s Town Planning Scheme (which came into effect in 2013) as allowing "unlimited height" developments in designated parts of the South Perth Station Precinct. This interpretation, however, is contrary to the public consultation material for the Station Precinct Plan underpinning the Scheme. Advertising material for the Station Precinct Plan and Amendment No.25 to the Scheme made no mention of "unlimited height" and instead indicated that the future of South Perth would be medium height developments of between 4 to 14 storeys with merely a suggestion of "relaxation" of prescribed height limits in certain areas in order to encourage commercial development. There was no indication to the residents of South Perth that the Scheme would be relied upon to rush through high rise developments of principally residential apartment blocks which would vastly exceed the prescribed heights and would turn South Perth from a village community into something to rival the Gold Coast.
The Scheme was supposed to introduce more intense medium density gradually, through stepped development, in keeping with established planning practice. Instead there has been an unholy rush to accept whatever heights and plot ratios developers have submitted, without any proper account taken of the character-changing impact on the amenity of South Perth including views and overshadowing or the cumulative effect of the traffic congestion (both locally and along the Freeway), or the parking problems and the disruption to the local and wider community which will be caused by so many dwellings in a small area.
The latest of these JDAP decisions, in relation to 74 Mill Point Road on the Mill Point Peninsula, is particularly incomprehensible given that the ratepayers of South Perth in a Special Electors Meeting on 6 May overwhelmingly opposed the development and resolved that the part of the Mill Point Peninsula on which the proposed development is situated should be excluded from the South Perth Station Precinct (so that heights in the Peninsula would be restricted to no more than 8 storeys). The residents also asked for Council to institute the long overdue Local Planning Strategy and amend the Scheme so that there could be proper regulation and consideration given as to where and how future development would be appropriate. All elected Councillors of South Perth also indicated their opposition to the development in a separate Council meeting before the JDAP decision. They resolved to appoint a consultant to consider the amendments to the Scheme and the boundaries for the Station Precinct. Instead of waiting, however, until that process was concluded and declaring the development application premature (as properly and orderly planning principles dictated) the JDAP simply approved the development.
Is the South Perth Council acting unilaterally to change irrevocably the character of South Perth with high-rise or is this being carried out with the endorsement of the State government? There is no publicly available material from the Western Australian Planning Commission to suggest that there is currently a WA government mandate to override the publicised medium density Precinct Plan in South Perth, and sneak in high-rise, through ad hoc developments through the JDAP process. If there is such a mandate, however, the public has a right to know about such major and character-changing policies before these high-rise buildings are approved and change the landscape of Perth, with no proper forewarning.
There are many planning and legal reasons why the development application at 74 Mill Point Road should have been refused but there are also wider community issues at stake. The planning chaos and failure of democracy in South Perth affects everyone.
- South Perth is the view across the water from the City of Perth.
- All the sky-scraper developments are on or near access roads to or from the Kwinana Freeway so in the foreseeable future the public can expect traffic jams there and even more pressure on local parking. No detailed analysis has yet been done of the extent of the traffic problems arising from the cumulative effect of all these high rise developments, let alone how they might be solved.
- For those who enjoy Kings Park and who take visitors there to see the views of Perth, they can soon expect a very different kind of vista to the one that Australian landscape guru George Sedden memorably described as the most iconic view of Perth.
These new developments will loom high above the Peninsula and become the dominant feature of what is currently the sweeping unique vista of the Swan River from King's Park. Many cities have tall buildings but Perth has something unique in the world which will now be expected to play second fiddle to the vanity of developers.
Where there is currently an overwhelming sense of the grandeur of nature and the beauty of the Swan River below the quiet grace of the War Memorial, soon we shall look instead upon a sea of domineering towers (as others which will inevitably follow).
They will serve as a monument to greed, short sightedness and poor planning!
We, the undersigned beg you to come to South Perth and see for yourself the appalling legacy which you will be leaving to all residents of Perth and would ask you to do everything in your power to rectify the situation.