Why we needed Local Planning Policies three years ago!

KEY POINTS

• The City of Joondalup can provide us with an interim Local Planning Policy AT ANY TIME to help protect existing HOAs, while they review the rest of the infill framework and create a true vision for infill.

• Local Planning Policies provide extra rules that developers have to follow that will protect us from some of the poor planning outcomes that HOAs are currently delivering.

• Local Planning Policies can help with issues surrounding:

o Restricting multiple dwellings (apartments)

o Improving landscaping and open space on lots and verges

o Tree planting and retention no lots and verges

o Tackling parking issues, particularly visitor parking

o Privacy and setback issues

o Sustainable design measures

o Waste management, including bin storage and collection points

o Encouraging development design that fits in with the area

• We could and should already have these policies in place. We should have had them when we were originally rezoned over three years ago and still the City is saying we're months away!

So, what is a Local Planning Policy?

LPPs are created and enacted by local governments, to outline their development standards. They are useful when assessing planning applications. Many other local government municipalities have had them in place for ages (see Cambridge's). In places of infill, they are helping to curb the worst excesses of development, creating new homes that are better for the people who live in and around them.

How can Local Planning Policies help?

They are a useful way for a City to provide some clear rules, such as ‘development controls’ that enforce better design outcomes, offering clear guidelines that help all decision makers understand what is acceptable.

How will the Consultant’s Report help HOAs?

As part of the Consultant’s Report, they included a series of Local Planning Policies. If the City extract these policies now, we can apply them as an interim policy for the current HOAs. To achieve this, the City has agreed to take a look at the development controls in Section Three of the Consultant’s Report.

What can this interim LPP do for us?

When the Consultants asked us what we hated most about the current way developments are being built, we told them where there was room for improvement:

The good news is, LPPs can tackle most of the above issues. Better still, some LPPs can be enforced really quickly, planners just need to write them, advertise them for 21 days and have Council approve them. Others must be approved by the WAPC to carry weight, but this doesn’t have to be a drawn-out process either and can take months rather than years (which is what a scheme amendment usually takes).

However, as the red dots show (see images above), some of the items that we are concerned about can, but have not been tackled in Section Three, while other policies need to be spelled out more clearly, with stronger outcomes provided.

So, where to from here?

The City’s officers have yet to put forward a report on the interim HOA Local Planning Policy. We have been recently been told that it will not be even be out in July's meeting, so who can say?

In the meantime, we are editing and reviewing Section Three, and are offering some suggestions for improvement and a list of items that the community have shown concern for that haven’t been tackled in Section Three. You will find our draft review here.

You should know that, even if the community agree to the recoding the Consultant’s report is putting forward (and we are yet to be asked our opinion), an approved Scheme Amendment to make these changes is more than a year away: maybe many years, if they are approved by State Planning at all. In light of this, it is fair and reasonable for the ratepayers to expect a strong Local Planning Policy for HOAs in the interim, to address many of the concerns that the review has outlined. We all need to work together to ensure that this is being delivered as quickly and effectively as possible. Help us to encourage our Mayor and Councillors to make this happen.