AFTER almost nine years of work, a masterplan for the possible development of the Burns Beach foreshore area will soon be advertised for public comment.
In August 2007, Joondalup council requested a report on the masterplan project, which included the establishment of a surf club, the redevelopment of Jack Kikeros Hall, a restaurant or cafe, parking, groyne refurbishment, enhancement of Burns Beach foreshore park, a swimming beach and a snorkelling trail.
In April 2012, the council endorsed a “project vision and philosophy”, which included creating a “high-amenity coastal destination”, providing recreational, leisure, service, commercial and retail and promoting the use of natural areas and conservation of natural resources.
Get in front of tomorrow's news for FREE
Journalism for the curious Australian across politics, business, culture and opinion.
READ NOWFour design options were developed.
In June 2015, the draft masterplan and the recommended indicative concept design were presented to council and recommended for public consultation.
However, at the meeting, a number of residents expressed concern about the possible effect a proposed carpark on the north-eastern edge of the park could have on nearby residents. Consequently, council voted to refer the report back for more work.
An additional three design options were developed. Nine months later, at last month’s meeting, another report was presented to the council.
This time, City officers recommended only the draft masterplan be advertised for public consultation and a concept design be developed and separately consulted on in the future.
A council document said including a design concept could create expectations in the community that the upgrades shown would be implemented soon.
It said given there was no funding to implement the design in the City’s five-year capital works program or 20-year strategic financial plan, the community’s expectations “would need to be carefully managed”.
It said a preliminary estimated cost of implementing a concept design was between $4.5 million and $5.5 million and any future implementation of the design would need to be “carefully budgeted for and may need to occur across a number of different stages and across multiple financial years”.
Cr Tom McLean moved an alternative motion to include concept design 6, which is estimated at $5.2 million and proposes to relocate the existing carpark to Ocean Parade to create a large foreshore open space, for public consultation.
The motion noted the council had not yet endorsed the design and there were no funds now available to implement it.
Planning and community development director Dale Page said including the concept plan would not lock the council in to delivering the plan but it would “create more of an expectation that something that looks similar to that concept will be developed”.
She said if the City did allocate funding to the plan in the future, it would need to go through a detailed design and testing process and the concept could change.
“It is only a masterplan meaning it is a high level guiding document and we’ve made it clear it is a potential indicative concept plan for the area in the future,” she said.
The draft masterplan and indicative concept design will be open for public comment for 60 days. A further report on the consultation outcomes will then be presented to the council.
Mayor questions the cost of ‘gold plating’ park
JOONDALUP Mayor Troy Pickard said proceeding with the Burns Beach masterplan would be “gold plating” the foreshore park.
At last month’s March council meeting, he said he did not believe a masterplan for a suburb was warranted.
“I’m not aware of any local government authority in Australia that has a masterplan for a suburb,” he said.
“We have masterplans for cities and precincts but I’m not aware of a masterplan for a suburb.
“I think it creates some expectations, fairly, from other residents in the community that if it is suitable for the City to compile a masterplan for Burns Beach then it should also be appropriate for the City to prepare a masterplan for the other 21 suburbs; that would take us 189 years.”
He said Burns Beach was already covered by a structure plan, “which is effectively the masterplan”.
He said spending $5.2 million that was not in the City’s budget was a concern if the City wanted to be “financially responsible in managing ratepayers’ money”.
“It is absolutely gold plating a park by spending $5.2 million on it,” he said.
“Since 2007, we’ve spent $934,000 enhancing Burns Beach Park and its surrounds in various infrastructure, drainage, bike networks, parking, the groyne and the sump, which is a reasonable expenditure.
“I think it would be fair to say, if we gold plate Burns Beach Park, other residents in our City would rightly expect one park in their suburb to be likewise gold plated, which equates to $114.4 million.”
He acknowledged Burns Beach was “a beautiful little park and a popular coastal destination”.
However, he said the City had many popular coastal destinations.
“Tom Simpson Park in Mullaloo is very well patronised, more so than Burns Beach and we spent $2.1 million refurbishing that park recently,” he said.
“Sorrento Beach is likewise a very popular destination on our coastline, far more so than Burns Beach and we spent $3.7 million over a decade ago.
“We recently redeveloped Delamere Park in Currambine… and we only spent $1.67 million.
“I don’t think it is an appropriate expenditure of funds given we have spent nearly $1 million in the last nine years enhancing that park to the standard it is today.”
Planning and community development director Dale Page said the Burns Beach masterplan was initially developed to string together the plans that already covered the suburb.
She said the recommendations in the plan could still be implemented without needing a masterplan.
Cr Tom McLean said not to go ahead with the plan would be unfair to the Burns Beach residents who had already had their expectations raised.
“Tom Simpson Park in Mullaloo and Sorrento Beach already had significant infrastructure supporting their development in place that we want to put in place, to a lesser extent, at Burns Beach,” he said.
“We should be aiming to make Burns Beach a destination.”
Ms Page said the City had already spent about $40,000 on a consultant when the plan was initially being developed.
Carpark in future considerations
PARKING at the Burns Beach foreshore will be upgraded in the future.
A Joondalup council document from last month’s March meeting said car-parking was one of the main issues and demand would increase if a new restaurant or café were established.
It said all of the seven concept design plans proposed extra parking west of the existing caravan park, along Ocean Parade and to service the parkland and a new café or restaurant.
Joondalup chief executive Garry Hunt said the carpark to the west of the caravan park could be progressed.
He said improving the parking would also enhance the City’s expression of interest for process for the development of a café or restaurant, which was put on hold in 2014 pending the outcome of the masterplan process.
Councillors voted unanimously to list for future consideration $470,000 “in to a future year of the City’s capital works program” for construction of the carpark.