“But we would have a high control on what gets built, and it could be affected by the security review now being conducted by the Department of Defence,” Defence Housing Australia (DHA) regional development manager James Wallace said.
The review is due on June 30, after which the DoD will have final say on any prospective buyers’ requests to lift design guidelines or covenants.
The sale of the land could raise $100 million for the $165 million redevelopment proposed for a 2022 completion.
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READ NOW“The prices we get depend on what the covenant is, depending on the review from DoD,” DHA development program manager Tom Cummings said, when asked why people would pay market prices for land with limited architectural potential.
Mr Cummings said the sale was necessary because new defence houses’ costs were “astronomical”, and while DHA was a profit-making enterprise, “that doesn’t mean all projects are profit making”.
DHA draft framework plans used at a briefing last week, show the southern half of the 22ha village providing 5.2ha of civilian lots, a road connecting civilians to 165 new defence homes and a concept with lots near the Seaward Avenue-Coast Rise roundabout, about 200m from a barracks’ gate.
DHA property planning manager John Dietz said the redevelopment was to provide uniform defence housing across Australia and stop varying accommodation standards causing people to leave the armed forces.
After recent ratepayer and Nedlands Council concern about the redevelopment , DHA now proposes 4-5 months of public consultation after about 100 ratepayers attended a briefing at Associates Rugby Union Football Clublast Wednesday.
Sayer Street Interest Group spokesman Sam Vandongren said most left “disappointed”, and DHA made it “quite clear” it did not consider keeping the quiet amenity of neighbouring streets during construction as being important.
Nedlands Mayor Max Hipkins said he heard nothing at the briefing that alleviated his council’s concerns, including bush possibly being sold and building truck congestion on neighbouring streets.
“The one thing about engineers is that they at least have rules of thumb and estimates to generate an estimate of traffic, and for the DHA to give evasive answers only makes people more disgruntled,” he said.