Iacomella calls for consistency

Educating the community on the benefits of higher-density development is looming as one of the big challenges for Lino Iacomella, who has taken the helm at the Property Council of Australia WA Division

Mr Iacomella this month succeeded Joe Lenzo as the Property Council’s WA executive director, and says he’ll hit the ground running to help the property sector deliver $4 billion worth of proposed projects around Perth over the next 10 years.

But convincing opponents that higher-density residential development, particularly in near-city suburbs, is essential to accommodate Perth’s growth is set to be one of Mr Iacomella’s most difficult tasks.

Mr Iacomella said the recent planning standoff in South Perth, where residents were seeking to block high-rise apartment developments along the South Perth peninsula, could have been avoided through better consultation.

In South Perth, residents successfully argued for the Supreme Court of Western Australia to overturn planning approval for an apartment tower at 74 Mill Point Road, despite it meeting the suburb’s planning guidelines when assessed by the metropolitan central development assessment panel last year.

The court ruled that the mix of residential and non-residential uses in the proposed tower did not meet planning guidelines put in place by the City of South Perth in 2013 in an effort to encourage developers to pitch large-scale projects and create enough density to warrant the construction of a new train station.

That court decision led to the DAP rejecting another proposed tower on Mill Point Road midway through last month, also because of its mix of residential and commercial uses, casting doubt over a large wave of upcoming projects in the near-city suburb.

The decision also called into question the effectiveness of the DAP system, with some pundits claiming the panels issued too many approvals, ignoring advice from local government planning agents.

“The agitation around development applications and development assessment panels can be dealt with very easily by requiring local governments to do much better consultation with their local communities at an early stage of setting their own local planning rules,” Mr Iacomella told Business News.

“The fact is, the DAP system works very well; what hasn’t been happening well is local governments managing their local planning rules.

“They have the responsibility and they must engage with their local communities.

“The consultation shouldn’t be left to the last minute of development.”

Mr Iacomella said higher-density developments, which could be a mix of townhouses, apartments and single dwellings (and not necessarily high-rise projects), brought tangible benefits for local communities.

Those include increased amenity through new retail and hospitality options, which also created new employment opportunities.

“You give young entrepreneurs the confidence to have a go, and that creates new business,” Mr Iacomella said.

But he said consistent planning guidelines across local councils, which would likely have been achieved if the state government was successful in its plan to halve the number of local governments in Perth, would be increasingly crucial in rolling out the infrastructure required to facilitate growth.

“Surely we can get a consistent set of rules,” he said.

“When we do MAX Light Rail, it will cross over five or more councils.

“The least we can do is give developers and investors a consistent set of planning rules as they move from council to council.”