Fremantle’s city centre is set to be radically transformed, following state government approval of an amendment to the city’s planning scheme.
The amendment will enable 12 key sites between the railway station and Kings Square to be redeveloped in anticipation of substantial commercial investment in the area.
The city is aiming to create an additional 20,000sqm of retail area, 70,000sqm of office space and a further 1,500 dwellings across Fremantle in its bid to attract more people to live and work in the city.
Fremantle mayor Brad Pettitt said the amendment will enable a level of development that was impossible under the current planning scheme.
“Today will be remembered as a watershed for Fremantle and will enable a scale of revitalisation not seen in the Fremantle city centre since the America’s Cup days of the mid to late 1980s,” Dr Pettitt said.
Planning and development director Philip St John hailed the plan as “one of the most significant, if not the most significant, planning decision this council has ever made.”
Under the amendment, the local council can allow up to 14 metres in additional height for buildings in the city centre.
A central area of focus in the city’s revitalisation plan is the Kings Square precinct, the site of the Myer store which is set to close early next year.
The city plans to secure an anchor tenant for the building, now owned by Sirona Capital and to replace or refurbish city-owned properties in the precinct.
