Above: The Rosehill Country Club golf course.
Camera IconAbove: The Rosehill Country Club golf course. Credit: Supplied/David Baylis www.communitypix.com.au d439529Below: The golf course area earmarked for redevelopment and the nearby Perth Airport.

Old South Guildford Golf Course to House 2000 Residents

Joel KellyMidland Kalamunda Reporter

The key decision to rezone the old golf course from ‘rural’ to ‘urban’ was gazetted last Tuesday, meaning South Guildford is one step closer to adding 800 new homes and about 2000 more residents.

The City of Swan can now begin to change its local planning scheme, while the developers of Rosehill Waters Estate will need to submit a structure plan for approval. Both processes will involve public consultation.

The WAPC has reduced the size of the development from 46.05ha to 41.2ha so homes are not in a zone where aircraft noise is higher than the Australian Noise Exposure Forecast level of 25 – the very limit of acceptability for residential developments.

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Noah’s Rosehill Waters manager Sandra Klarich said homes would set a new building standard benchmark in terms of noise abatement and energy efficiency measures.

She said the 150 people who had already expressed interest in the estate was evidence of the public’s acceptance of the estate’s proximity to the airport.

But Perth Airport’s chief executive Brad Geatches disagreed and stressed the main runway was only 2.3km away.

“It is simply not in the public interest that this development has been approved when it is so close to Perth Airport’s main runway and the new runway, which will be constructed in the near future,” he said.

“While we acknowledge that the Minister has imposed some strong conditions on the development, this is further evidence to suggest that the residences will be significantly impacted by aircraft noise immediately after they are built.”

The rezoning decision received 223 submissions, 190 of which were objections.

Guildford Association president Peter Stephenson said the decision was particularly disappointing in light of increased airport noise over the Guildford area since May this year.

“Air Services Australia is trialling some changes and we’ve found more planes are coming over the northern areas like Guildford and further up,” he said.

“We’ve opposed it on a number of grounds – loss of amenity, increased traffic, pressure on infrastructure in the area, and putting people under the flight path is also not a good idea.”

Ms Klarich said Noah’s Rosehill Waters would upgrade the intersection of Great Eastern Highway and Queens Road.

Provided that the next approvals and advertising periods went according to plan, groundwork at the estate could start early next year.

“We haven’t been given approval for something we shouldn’t have – the site has always been suited to development,” Ms Klarish said.