$80m works budget for City of Perth

A NEW library and public plaza at Cathedral Square and an injection of funding to complete the Forrest Square redevelopment have highlighted the City of Perth’s $80 million capital works budget, which was passed by the council last week.

The new Cathedral Square library and plaza development was allocated $14.4 million. This is part of the planned wider development of the area, including conversion of a boutique hotel in the Old Treasury Building and construction of an office tower on Barrack St.

The city has budgeted to spend a further $7 million completing the Forrest Place revamp.

The work in Forrest Place is largely proceeding at night, and includes the development of a new stage and loading dock.

Other big-ticket items were an affordable housing development in East Perth, which received a $7.4 million commitment, and $2.1 million for upgrades on Wellington Street as part of the Perth City Link.

To fund the works, the council said it would increase rates for 2011-12 to an average of 5.05 per cent across all classes.

Differential rates will be 4.6 cents in the dollar for commercial premises; 2.4 cents in the dollar for office space; 3.6 cents in the dollar for residential; and 4.8 cents in each dollar for vacant land.

The application of these rates will lead to some significant reductions in rate assessments for properties in the former commercial and retail categories. The minimum rate applicable would be $560 per year.

Lord Mayor Lisa Scaffidi said the rate rise was likely to be at the lower end of proposed rate rises across all local governments.

“Ratepayers will generally be paying more, however, in dollar terms due to triennial property revaluations provided by the state government’s Landgate agency,” Ms Scaffidi said.

“Council rates are based on the gross rental value of properties.

“The city has attempted to neutralise some of the impacts of these higher valuations by adjusting its differential rating system to align the rate in the dollar more closely with costs applicable to each rate class.

“Hotel, retail and commercial ratepayer classes have now been combined into one ‘commercial’ category.”