ABOUT 110ha of rural land in Eglinton has been flagged for future commercial development.
CLE Town Planning and Design, on behalf of 19 Taronga Place owners, applied to change the Alkimos Eglinton District Structure Plan.
One of the proposed changes was to redesignate 35ha of service commercial land in the central precinct as urban so it could be developed for about 500 houses.
Get in front of tomorrow's news for FREE
Journalism for the curious Australian across politics, business, culture and opinion.
READ NOWIt also proposed to include 110ha of rural land in the eastern precinct as service commercial land to replace the 35ha.
Wanneroo Council was due to consider the changes in May, but deferred making a decision amid concerns about the loss of employment land.
A July council report said there would be about 27,000 workers living in the area, and the employment self-sufficiency target of at least 40 per cent equated to 11,080 jobs.
It said the 35ha site could not achieve the employment target and the eastern precinct had better topography for large lots to support employment generating land uses.
Located between the Mitchell Freeway reserve and Wanneroo Road, that land currently has a variety of rural uses, including intensive agriculture, market gardens and hobby farms.
“The landowners may continue their existing rural operations until such time as they seek to redevelop the land,” the report said.
During public consultation, the Education Department raised concerns that adding 500 dwellings to the central precinct, which included the East of the Beach estate, would exceed the number of lots the future primary school for the area could accommodate.
Water Corporation’s submission said there were no plans to service the eastern precinct with waste water services and developers would have to provide water and sewerage reticulation.
Several anonymous submissions raised concerns about rezoning the rural land, including loss of environmental amenity and the area’s oldest dwelling, located on Pipidinny Road.
Councillors recommended the WA Planning Commission approve the changes at their July 2 meeting.
The Alkimos Eglinton District Structure Plan provides a planning framework for the creation of a coastal community with about 23,000 dwellings housing more than 57,000 people.