CONSTRUCTION of a $14 million public primary school for Alkimos was conditionally approved at a development assessment panel meeting on Monday.
On a 3.5ha vacant site on Fairy Parade, construction of Alkimos South West Primary School will start next year for the school to open in 2017.
It will accommodate a maximum of 760 students from kindergarten to Year 6.
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READ NOWIt is proposed that it will have four teaching blocks with 16 classrooms and 12 future transportable classrooms, plus a library, art and music rooms, administration block, staff room, covered assembly area and two hard courts.
The sports oval is under construction on the adjoining public open space and the school’s use of the oval will be facilitated through a memorandum of understanding between the City of Wanneroo and the Department of Education.
This is one of four primary and four secondary schools the Department of Education has proposed to address a shortfall of student accommodation identified in the Perth and Peel regions.
The schools will be developed through a public private partnership arrange-ment whereby a private consortium will design, build, finance and maintain the schools according to a design brief developed by the Department of Education and the Office of the Government Architect.
This process is dependent on the state obtaining all planning and environmental approvals during the tender process to allow the respondents to price the proposal.
It is expected the successful respondent will be awarded the contract in June and detailed designs will follow.
This meant the panel was required to assess the proposal based on the design brief because no drawings were available.
The metropolitan north-west Joint Development Assessment Panel approved the proposal four votes to one.
Conditions included buildings and fences to be set back 3m from street frontages, a minimum of 191 car and 50 bicycle parking bays, a traffic impact assessment, landscaping and construction plans to be prepared before a building permit is lodged and all buildings be restricted to a single storey.
It was also noted that over the past 100 years, the Australian Defence Force might have conducted training and operational activities in the area and the site could contain unexploded ordnance, but the risk was minimal.