PERTH’S long-dormant western foreshore seems poised to undergo development as the City of Perth and the Department of Planning and Infrastructure make preliminary moves to encourage development.
PERTH’S long-dormant western foreshore seems poised to undergo development as the City of Perth and the Department of Planning and Infrastructure make preliminary moves to encourage development.
The City of Perth has created an indicative concept plan for the Western Foreshore.
City of Perth media coordinator Peter Jackson said various plans had been considered over a long period of time.
He said this plan was designed to create a discussion point over what council would like to see on the western foreshore, which is wholly crown land.
“The image, land use and scale of development have all been discussed and the next step towards developing the area is to talk with the State Government at all levels to advance thinking and public consultation about what may happen on the site,” Mr Jackson said.
“No funding propositions have been considered – the main thing is to get a shared vision and make sure that quality goes down there, and council has designed some principles it believes underpin that.”
As the last of the William Street Bridge is demolished and with the southern suburbs railway project under way, Planning and Infrastructure Minister Alannah MacTiernan announced a study aimed at making the foreshore more accessible to the community by restructuring the road network between the Esplanade/ Mounts Bay Road and the Narrows Interchange.
Ms MacTiernan said until now the bridge had been a visual and physical barrier between the city and the foreshore and its demolition presented a great opportunity to radically rethink the foreshore.
“At the very least, we will be able to realign the roads, pushing them back from the foreshore to allow better access to this precious land and enable the creation of a western foreshore precinct on the river,” she said.
Ms MacTiernan said she was aware of the City of Perth plan, which was different from the State Government concept designs revealed in December.
She said she would be happy to look at the City’s plan and go back to basics in coming up with a final plan for the area.
However the DPI and Perth City Council are not in agreement on all CBD development with Alannah MacTiernan directing the WA Planning Commission to remove the City of Perth’s delegated development authority over the proposed Cinema City development just hours before Perth City Council was due to consider it.
The application by developer Westpoint proposed a 27-storey building that included 136 apartments and a 204-room hotel.
Ms MacTiernan said the application had wider significance because of its potential effect on one of the State’s premier heritage precincts.
“We are not opposed to redevelopment of the site, but concerns have been raised about overshadowing and height of the development,” she said.
“I have asked the WAPC to start talks with the CoP to ensure a redevelopment that maximises the benefit for the community.”
The WAPC and CoP must now both approve any development application for the Cinema City site.
