Furious residents have abused what they call a 'desperate' attempt to 'neuter' legal issues with high-rise on South Perth Peninsula, after the state refused a council attempt to limit building heights.
Developers, however, have breathed a sigh of relief at Planning Minister Donna Faragher's knockback, ending the latest battle in what national media recently named as one of Australia's biggest development stoushes in 2016.
The City introduced a pro-density planning scheme in 2012 but experienced a rather unexpected rush of applications for high-rise residential towers, which caused bitter fights from residents facing some spectacular losses of amenity.
Both sides, residents and developers, formed powerful lobby groups, with the residents' South Perth Peninsula Action Group finally winning a Supreme Court challenge to the approval of luxury high-rise Lumiere - thereby throwing the approvals of a handful of other high-rises into doubt.
The City moved last year to reintroduce height limits after pressure from residents but Ms Faragher announced just before Christmas the City would have to make major modifications.
It would have to allow unlimited heights, though developers would have to jump through more design hoops to get the height bonuses, proving "exemplary design quality" and contributing to the "quality of the inner-urban environment".
It would also have to drop its 50/50 residential/commercial space requirement, which the City had implemented to maximise commercial activity and avoid the spot becoming a dormitory suburb.
Dropping this requirement prevents further court challenges such as that that overturned approvals for Lumiere, whose developer Edge had to redesign the building to include 50 per cent tourist accommodation to get it approved.
Lumiere: One of the country's most hotly contested buildings. Photo: Emma Young
Residents had been pointing out that the court's decision left the other high-rise approvals – such as that for the precinct's 38-level centrepiece Civic Heart – in breach of planning law.
After deliberating for eight months the state government then gave the City 42 days to complete the modifications, due on January 31.
The action group said the decision neutered the Supreme Court verdict, swept away the last remaining impediment to unfettered high-rise development, and undermined the case for a train station by removing the area's prospects of becoming a commercial and employment hub.
"Donna Faragher released her announcement a week before Christmas and the changes have to be back with the WAPC the day before the government goes into caretaker mode on February 1," said spokeswoman Vicki Redden.
"Apparently they are ringing every day asking where it is. Sounds very desperate for a group that sat on it for eight months.
"Just proves that all the talk about consulting and communicating with the community amounts to nothing. The WAPC ... [took] out everything the community wanted and gave the developers everything they wanted.
"The Minister seems to think that some additional performance criteria will control the height, but in our experience performance criteria is so weak that [assessors] use their discretion to approve whatever they like, not what is intended by the scheme.
"We are pleased to see that the traffic will be assessed cumulatively, that is the only sensible approach."
She said as soon as the ink dried on the amendment there would be movement on four additional tower proposals currently on hold: 1-3 Lyall Street, 44 and 50 storeys; 86 Mill Point Road, 38 storeys; and 76 Mill Point Road, 50 storeys.
An artist's impression of the plans for 1-3 Lyall Street. Photo: Supplied
"These will take the traffic trips to over 10,000 cars per day through the Mill Point/Labouchere intersection, already stressed, and against Main Roads' very strong advice," she said.
"We are furious."
Ms Faragher said in a statement following the announcement that dropping the commercial-residential requirement was in response to "concerns raised during consultation regarding the current land-use mix requirements" and would allow "greater flexibility for future uses".
The city did win its attempt to reintroduce street setbacks of two to four metres to make room for street trees.
Developers will also have to include not only the traffic impact of their own proposals, but the cumulative impact of all the development in the area, in traffic impact studies.
Those wanting height bonuses will also have to cap residential car parking to limit traffic problems.
These provisions are key, given the 'station precinct' has not been promised a train station by either party – government transport plans to 2050 do not mention it.
Residents have mounted a vocal campaign against the towers. Photo: Supplied
Mrs Faragher said the modifications would ensure design quality, street tree retention, amenity and traffic were all considered in development application processing.
Developers have welcomed the decision.
"The industry as well as the many buyers waiting to purchase apartments in South Perth all welcome the decision to stop the planning uncertainty," said Property Council executive director Lino Iacomella.
"The decision will clear the way for sensible development outcomes in South Perth and it will create enough residential density to support a future train station. The decision will also clear the way for the significant investments and construction jobs to proceed in South Perth.
"Not having a blanket height restriction on new buildings, lessening the need for non-residential development and introducing strong design performance criteria means that projects will be better designed.
Residents have suffered through some bad planning outcomes recently in the City. Photo: Emma Young
"We don't anticipate congestion problems [before a train station eventuates] because part of decision was that development outcomes need to be aligned with things like parking and availability of car spaces."
He said while generally speaking parking was an important part of development saleability, better public transport in inner-ring suburbs meant developers could get more creative.
Increasingly there was demand for combinations such as one bay/one bedroom and two bays/two bedrooms, and longer term, automatic vehicles might change the game again.
He said while Perth had reached peak apartment supply in 2016 in two to three years' time there would be growing demand and by 2018-19 a sharp reduction in supply.
