1 hour ago
1
Lawyers for property mogul Nigel Satterley’s eponymous development company have conceded its dream to establish a 1001-lot townsite in North Stoneville will not be realised until a major upgrade of Toodyay Road is complete – which may not happen until the 2040s.
Despite this, the company argued that, with mooted Main Roads upgrades to Seaborne Street and Great Eastern Highway, they could still safely pursue between 350 and 400 lots at the site until EastLink was complete.
Perth property developer Nigel Satterley has been fighting for years to build the North Stoneville development.Credit: Trevor Collens
Satterley’s lawyer Paul McQueen made the admission on Thursday during the final day of a lengthy State Administrative Tribunal fight to overturn the WA Planning Commission’s rejection of the North Stoneville structure plan.
If approved, the plan would allow Satterley to proceed with a new development on behalf of the Anglican Church on church-owned land.
McQueen spent much of his closing submission arguing against the WA Planning Commission’s point that the structure plan could only be approved or refused by the tribunal.
McQueen said the tribunal had the power to assess late modifications made to Satterley’s structure plan and to order further modifications if it saw fit.
This included changing the allowable number of lots at the 535-hectare site until the completion of road upgrades that could handle the influx of residents in the area, particularly during a bushfire evacuation.
Main Roads gave evidence earlier in the hearing suggesting it was committed to building an acceleration lane from Seaborne Street onto Great Eastern Highway, which Satterley has argued would improve traffic flow away from the Stoneville area.
“What’s important for that is that still potentially takes this applicant to 400 lots or 350, I accept it doesn’t take us to 1000 and 1000 will never happen, and the applicant concedes that, until leasing is done, but we’re just seeking sufficient time through the modification to enable that possibility,” McQueen said.
At a hearing on Tuesday, WAPC lawyers revealed Satterley had offered to only build 135 lots at the site until road improvements were complete.
Loading
EastLink is an unfunded major road project planned to connect Roe Highway to Northam with major upgrades to Toodyay Road.
It has formed as a crucial element paving the way for the North Stoneville townsite, but according to Main Roads’ evidence during the hearings, it would likely not begin construction until sometime between 2036 and 2041.
Tribunal Judge Henry Jackson said the project would need funding from both the state and federal governments and “a lot of ducks needed to line up”.
McQueen’s concession and the EastLink timeframe means Satterley’s long-held dream at North Stoneville may not happen until the 2040s.
Community opposition revolves around the loss of native bushland and fire risk to new and existing residents.
The WAPC rejected the most recent North Stoneville plan in December 2023 because of the bushfire risk.
McQueen argued that the land had been rezoned urban at the time a bushfire planning policy was in place and that process would have considered fire risks.
He said no structure plan would be approved if external risks needed to be reduced to nothing.
“What you do is mitigate that risk,” he said.
He said the bushfire mitigation Satterley had agreed to – like vegetation clearing, building code measures, water tanks and other infrastructure – brought the risk to the area to an acceptable level.
McQueen also said the North Stoneville site was subject to more than 30 years of planning, including being subject to Shire of Mundaring and state government planning frameworks and the WAPC had not given the history of the site enough weight.
“They are all very significant documents. What’s happening in this review proceeding is curiously the opposite of what normally happens,” he said.
“The respondent’s asking you to do what proponents normally do which is to ignore the planning framework.”
Most Viewed in National
Loading
