Angry Stirling residents threaten mass defection to Cambridge

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This was published 7 years ago

Angry Stirling residents threaten mass defection to Cambridge

By Emma Young
Updated

A crowd of angry residents gathered at the City of Stirling on Monday night to pass a public vote of no confidence in its chief executive, demanding he re-examine controversial planning decisions.

The crowd of 140 residents from Karrinyup, Trigg and Carine called the special electors' meeting to pass the vote, and threatened to seek removal from City boundaries to neighbouring council Cambridge via a Dadour poll.

Mr Wheeler said this property's situation was not mentioned in the council's report, even though it was the 'worst case scenario', other town planners told him it was normal practice to consider.

Mr Wheeler said this property's situation was not mentioned in the council's report, even though it was the 'worst case scenario', other town planners told him it was normal practice to consider. Credit: Simon Wheeler

They demanded an investigation into the City of Stirling's planning department, with particular regard to three buildings it recommended the local Development Assessment Panel approve.

One development, a four-storey block of 20 units on Ozone Parade in Trigg, was approved just before a City planning scheme amendment came into force stopping multi-dwelling developments on such sites.

40 years' work for a sea view... then this, before the mortgage is even paid off.

40 years' work for a sea view... then this, before the mortgage is even paid off. Credit: Simon Wheeler

"The city was trying to stop developments just like this one," group spokesman Simon Wheeler said.

"One unit has a kitchen window and living area which used to have ocean views. Now right in front, less than four metres away, is a doorway and concrete wall.

"I understand it's a first world problem but the view is built into our property values and those views are being replaced by a concrete block with walkways, from which people look straight into our kitchens, bedrooms and living areas.

"The loss on my property is probably about $150,000.

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An increasingly-common sight around Perth.

An increasingly-common sight around Perth. Credit: Simon Wheeler

"All my partner ever wanted was a sea view. We worked 20 years each before we got it. I'm still paying back the bank and it's been taken away."

The other two proposals named were large nursing home developments, one a four-storey Karrinyup building on Prisk Street in a designated bushfire-prone area, on which new regulations require a bushfire attack level assessment but, this was not done, and the community is concerned.

"The City of Stirling informed residents that a BAL report wasn't required by legislation because the legislation had only been passed three months prior and there was a four-month transition period allowed," Mr Wheeler said.

"Not a word about the safety of four storeys of geriatric patients being put at risk over a technicality."

The loss on my property is probably about $150,000.

The other development, on Silica Street in Carine, was a site for which the council had spent a great deal of time and money developing a 'local vision' structure plan guaranteeing five to six-metre setbacks and retention of mature trees.

But the approval allowed the developer to cut setbacks to as little as 1.5 metres in places, necessitating the removal of several trees in an area that can scarce afford such a loss.

Mr Wheeler said residents felt the council, powerless against the local Development Assessment Panel and the State Administrative Tribunal, was rubber-stamping proposals.

"During the advertising period for this electors' meeting I had a call from about 40 people with similar issues," he said.

"On their own each can be argued over. But they add up to something greater than the sum of their parts.

"I now have others' emotions on board and I can see how it's affecting them. It's about people's lives, all they ever work for and all they really want.

"I am not a little old bloke complaining about things for the sake of anything. I have never done anything like this, it's not my way. But the more we do, the more people tell me.

"Then I research, look into it, and it is unbelievable what is happening.

"The planning department does pretty much whatever they want and they are totally unaccountable. All we can do is pressure councillors. There are several who understand what is happening within the planning department but they take a deep breath before they say anything.

"When the council meets in early February, if they ignore all these motions – and some of them are not unreasonable – they need to be investigated because there is something very wrong."

He said residents were not anti-development, but the approvals were coming in cases where options to get a better outcome through compromise had been ignored.

City of Stirling chief executive Stuart Jardine said City officers prepared a Responsible Authority Report for all DAP applications, assessing each against planning law in a publicly available report.

Outcomes of community consultation were important, but were only one part of the consideration – if an application complied with planning regulations it would be approved.

In these cases, the City had appropriately assessed the three developments against the statutory planning framework and provided a detailed report to the DAP, which had made the decisions on the proposals' merits against planning requirements.

"It is always concerning when residents feel aggrieved by any development decision and the City always tries to balance planning outcomes with amenity concerns when assessing applications," Mr Jardine said.

"It is, however, important that once the assessment and consultation process has occurred in relation to a development application that residents understand that a lawful planning decision has been made.

"The State Government have set up the JDAP process and whilst council voted in May to lobby against the system due to concerns being raised regarding the voice of the community and Council in the decision making process, this is the system we currently have to work within."

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The residents at the meeting were a portion of the approximately 320 from these suburbs signed up to the "DAP Affected Communities" campaign, which believes the amenity of Perth suburbs is being compromised by perceived problems with the state government's Development Assessment Panel system.

The state government has made a spirited defense of the system and while Labor has said there are problems with it and held a community forum on the issue, it has not outlined an election platform on the subject.

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