Plans are advancing for a major redevelopment at Westfield Whitford City, including 739 apartments along with 27,000 square metres of new retail space.
The City of Joondalup was due to consider a draft structure plan for the redevelopment at its council meeting last night, with the proposal recommended to be approved for advertising for public comment by its planning officers, according to agenda documents.
The draft plan is the culmination of a long-running battle between centre owner Scentre Group and the City of Joondalup, which had not been able to come to agreement on appropriate land uses for the 428,000 square metre site.
A $192 million proposal was rejected by the Metropolitan North West development assessment panel in October 2013, largely because it did not meet the state’s prescribed planning guidelines.
That proposal was largely a retail expansion, which would have resulted in a 94,300sqm Whitford City if approved to go ahead.
The centre has a current net lettable area of just under 50,000sqm.
Scentre Group took the fight to the State Administrative Tribunal, which ordered the City of Joondalup and the Department of Planning to work with the retail landlord to come to a suitable agreement.
The new structure plan, which puts a cap on expansion to 77,500sqm, adding around 27,000sqm to the existing centre, is the result of that mediation, which also included the Department of Transport, the Public Transport Authority and Main Roads WA.
A key feature of the new plan which was not included in the original proposal is that for every 500sqm of additional retail space over 55,000sqm, one dwelling will be built on the site.
Over the long-term, 739 dwellings are proposed to be built in the structure plan area, meeting the requirements of Directions 2031, with building heights limited to seven-storeys.
The centre will also include a main street environment, while roads and other transport infrastructure will be upgraded to facilitate the redevelopment.
