THE Metro Central Joint Development Assessment Panel (JDAP) has approved a five-storey $2.9 million development with 17 apartments and a roof garden on Foyle Road in Bayswater.
At today’s meeting, the panel voted 4-1 against City of Bayswater officers’ recommended refusal of JCM Property Group Pty Ltd’s proposed development at Lot 661, 1 Foyle Road.
JDAP member and Deputy Mayor Chris Cornish, who voted against the approval, said he chose to support the officers rather than paid consultants who reviewed the proposal.
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READ NOWThe vacant 1170sq m site, which is zoned as a carpark, will be developed within a two-year approval period.
Town planners Planning Solutions’ previous 2016 proposal was refused by JDAP and the State Administrative Tribunal.
This new proposal includes a pedestrian path connecting Foyle Road with the building entrance and the removal of two units on the south-west side of third floor, increasing the roof garden area.
Several Bayswater residents supported the proposal and expressed the importance of having apartments at this site, which was 220m away from the to-be-developed Bayswater train station.
Bayswater ratepayer and former Mt Lawley MLA Michael Sutherland, who addressed the panel, labelled the council as “backwater” and more well-designed developments were needed in the town centre.
Lavan Legal partner Paul McQueen, who spoke on behalf of Eric Lumsden and Associates town planner, current City of Perth commissioner and former Western Australian Planning Commission chairman Eric Lumsden, said the proposal was compliant with the City’s Town Planning Scheme No.24 and structure plan.
Planning Solutions associate Scott Vincent said the proposal warranted the City’s Bayswater Town Centre Structure Plan bonus incentive of an extra storey if quality design and a green wall were provided.
However, Bayswater planning officer Steven De Piazzi said the proposal was non-compliant and the roof garden was not a green wall so a bonus storey could not be given.
Mr De Piazzi said while the proposed development appeared like a four-storey development, it exceeded the structure plan’s provision for three storeys or four storeys including a bonus storey in the Beechboro Core precinct.
Acting presiding member Sheryl Chaffer said the “quality design” of the development would add to the redevelopment of the town centre.
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