City of Kwinana backs plan for more jobs, homes & taller buildings in city centre

A vision for taller buildings and more jobs and homes in the Kwinana city centre has been backed.

The Kwinana city centre precinct plan was approved at the City of Kwinana’s October 21 council meeting and will now go to the WA Planning Commission for approval.

It covers an area bounded by Sulphur Road to the north, Meares Avenue to the east, Challenger Avenue to the south and Gilmore Avenue to the west.

It is intended to guide the development and growth of this area, which has been called the “premium” commercial activity centre in Kwinana, for the next 20 years.

It covers about 31ha and proposes turning Chisham Avenue into a main street, and allowing taller buildings and greater housing density.

There are 105 residential dwellings in the area but the plan is hoping for more than 900 to be created, taking its population to more than 2500 people.

Buildings will be allowed to go up to four to six storeys across the precinct. Buildings along Robbos Way and Chisham Avenue will be at least two storeys high to create a main street environment.

Retail floor space is also planned to be increased from 33,000sqm to 50,000sqm, which is expected to create about 500 new jobs.

The plan will replace the 2019 city centre master plan. Consultation for it began in 2023.

The city received 39 submissions when the plan was advertised for comment from July to September.

None of them prompted changes being made to it.

Issues raised included building heights, parking, landscaping and antisocial behaviour.

Cr Balian Miller asked if there were any concerns that Kwinana Marketplace, which he said was a “central stakeholder”, did not make a submission.

A city officer said it was “usually ideal” for a major landowner to respond.

“They were contacted and asked to respond; their lack of response, I guess, indicates a level of comfort with what has been put forward,” he said.

Mayor Peter Feasey said they had been involved in previous stages.

“I would also imagine that it’s to do with the fact that they have gone a long period without a centre manager and a number of personnel between the property manager and also the owner,” he said.

One of the objections against the plan said there was no energy use reduction plan or strategy, or means to control litter.

It said the area was being “held to ransom” by fast-food outlets.

“Part of the planning needs to be a code of corporate conduct that forces these outlets to collect the garbage their trade and customers dump in our neighbourhood,” the submission said.

“Either that or introduce a punitive differential rate that goes toward cost recovery and an education/enforcement program for the slobs who litter.”

Cr Erin Sergeant asked if CCTV could be used to reduce the amount of litter.

A city officer said CCTV was usually intended to prevent crime, “littering not so much”, but it could be used to monitor behaviour and determine the site of complaints.

The city had been in contact with a fast-food business about managing litter on its site and an adjoining road reserve.

Cr Ivy Penny said the concern about energy use was a valid point that had not been addressed in full.

“It’s a major development and ... we’re looking at shading carparks and the opportunities there around energy generation,” she said.

“What’s the appetite from the city to explore some of those technologies and if it’s not through this plan, how else can that be explored?”

A city officer said that saying it was not a planning matter did not mean it was not being dealt with in another way.

“There’s increasing and improving standards all the time for private construction to meet higher energy efficiency standards,” he said.

“It could be a position of council that we look at encouraging developers to install solar PV in car parking, which is happening in other parts of the world to great effect, as I understand it.”

Cr Penny also asked if there were any plans to replace jacarandas that were planted at the front of the city’s offices.

“That’s probably the most prominent corner in Kwinana and those trees are really out of character with the rest of the city’s landscape architecture,” she said.

The meeting was told there were constraints on what trees could be used for landscaping.

“It’s availability, one, of trees and two is the shot-hole borer limiting what we can actually put in and have some confidence will survive,” an officer said.

“We also have a preference for natives again, particularly because of the shot-hole borer, and we’re constrained with what’s available.

“So the tree selection in that case would have been a combination of landscape architects looking at the location and determining what was suitable, what is actually available in the market ... and what is actually suitable because of the shot-hole borer.”