The Urban Development Institute of Australia (UDIA WA) has welcomed the opening of consultation on the draft Station Precincts Improvement Scheme, with Minister for Planning and Lands the Hon. John Carey MLA outlining the details at UDIA WA’s Industry Breakfast event this morning.
The draft Scheme provides further details on the eight Station Precincts identified under the Station Precincts Improvement Plan approved by the State Government earlier this year.
The Plan and new Scheme aim to streamline planning decisions and enable more medium and higher density housing in well-connected locations around key station precincts.
UDIA WA CEO Tanya Steinbeck said the Scheme released for comment today represented an important shift toward coordinated, precinct-scale planning for well-located infill housing.
“Successful infill is not simply about increasing density on individual sites. It is about planning whole precincts around housing, transport, infrastructure, public spaces and the needs of existing communities,” Ms Steinbeck said.
“The precinct-scale approach provides an opportunity to give both communities and industry greater certainty about where growth will occur, the form it will take and the infrastructure and amenity needed to support it,” Ms Steinbeck said.
The draft Scheme includes proposed maximum and minimum building height and density requirements for the precincts, that align with the updated R-Codes that are also currently out for comment.
“It is critical that we continue to identify and act on every opportunity to deliver more homes to the people who need them,” Ms Steinbeck said. “That requires more than identifying theoretical capacity on a planning map. Ultimately, planning settings must enable commercially feasible projects that can realistically be delivered.”
The identified precincts are an opportunity to create much-needed housing choice in areas that are well served by public transport and other amenities.
“Focusing more homes around existing public transport makes sense. It provides greater housing choice in areas where people want to live, while making better use of significant existing investment in our transport network,” Ms Steinbeck said.
“Importantly, concentrating higher density closest to stations, with appropriate transitions toward established neighbourhoods can also provide communities with greater clarity about how growth can be accommodated,” Ms Steinbeck said.
The Government’s proposed core-and-frame approach concentrates the greatest development intensity closer to stations while providing transitions to established neighbourhoods that respond to matters including local character, heritage, amenity and infrastructure capacity.
“UDIA WA has been advocating for this kind of leadership at a State-level that will shift the dial on housing supply and provide much needed consistency and certainty in decision making,” Ms Steinbeck said.
“There are several positive elements in the draft Scheme that have the potential to improve housing delivery, including clearer development settings, reduced duplication and greater flexibility around parking in locations that are already well served by public transport,” Ms Steinbeck said.
The draft provisions generally remove minimum residential and non-residential car parking requirements across the station precincts, while retaining maximum rates and allowing consideration of local circumstances.
“We would like to see the new Precincts Plan and Scheme supported by ongoing collaboration with industry and local government to ensure planning settings are commercially feasible, context-responsive and capable of delivering more homes sooner within each of the designated areas,” Ms Steinbeck said.
“That will be particularly important as the detail of the proposed public realm contribution framework is developed. UDIA supports the objective of replacing multiple overlapping requirements with a simpler coordinated approach, but it must genuinely consolidate existing obligations rather than add another cost to housing delivery”, Ms Steinbeck said.
The proposed public realm framework would consolidate separate public open space, public art and community-benefit requirements into a single contribution, with the detailed methodology, rates, thresholds, exemptions and credits to be developed following consultation.
“The biggest challenges to getting medium and high density residential projects ‘on the ground’ in the current market remain commercial feasibility and infrastructure capacity,” Ms Steinbeck said.
“We need State and local government, infrastructure agencies and industry working together from the outset so increased housing is supported by the transport, utilities, public realm, schools, parks and community infrastructure needed to create great places,” Ms Steinbeck said.
“If we get those elements right, Precincts WA has the potential to provide communities with greater certainty about growth while giving industry greater confidence to invest and deliver the homes Perth urgently needs,” Ms Steinbeck said.
UDIA WA looks forward to continuing to participate in the ongoing engagement process as the Improvement Scheme is finalised early next year.
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