Perth Voice Interactive

PLANS to convert the Inglewood IGA site into a $16 million mixed use complex have been rejected by the Stirling development assessment panel.

The applicant had hoped to build a three-to-five storey building, with 94 apartments, and an office, shop and restaurant on the ground floor of the property, at the corner of Beaufort and Tenth Streets.

The DAP refused the application 5-0 saying it didn’t want the adjacent Lawry Lane to go one way, and that multiple dwellings on the ground floor facing the street are not permitted in a mixed use zone.

Resident Graeme Cocks says the proposal would have ripped the heart out of Inglewood.

“Soon we’re going to end up with five-storey blocks all the way into the city, Beaufort Street will become one big concrete tunnel,” he says.

“If Inglewood is to become an urban village we need a convenient supermarket that locals and the elderly can walk to. All we would have been left with is Coles, which is around 1km away.”

Maylands Labor MP Lisa Baker says locals were concerned about losing their local store and around 80 people attended a briefing on the development last year: “Many concerns were raised around the high density of the residences, parking stressors and disappointment that sustainability features of the building and the tree canopy requirements were limited,” she says. “The best developments are those which boast the very highest levels of sustainable building features, attract energetic new retailers who will add to what’s on offer.

“My ideal sustainability principles include requiring new developments to add to the established tree canopy and having established trees planted with their feet in the earth, not in pots.”

The Voice contacted applicant Planning Solutions to ask if it would appeal DAP’s decision to the powerful state administrative tribunal, but it didn’t get back to us.

by STEPHEN POLLOCK