Perth Voice Interactive

NEARLY 30 Mount Hawthorn locals fronted Vincent council meeting this week to oppose a set of units in their quiet residential street.

Lynton Street residents don’t want the four dwellings built on the block which at the moment holds just one house which will be demolished.

The owner’s hired gun developer Tuscom says the development “will deliver an acceptable form outcome for the locality,” which has a scattering of two-storey houses.

Residents fear it’ll mean more traffic and parking troubles and more tenants in the area, and they’re worried it’ll set a precedent for 20-odd similarly sized blocks in the area.

Brad Wright said it’s the kind of neighbourhood where kids play outdoors and neighbours bring out jugs of lemonade for each other.

“We do not want to have multi-dwellings in our street,” he said. “We want to retain that sense of community.”

Mr Wright says he used to live in a townhouse in a busier area but decided to move further out to quieter surrounds.

“We made a conscious choice before we had children to move. We never thought we’d now be having a four-unit multi-dwelling proposed opposite us.”

Many residents the Voice spoke to were concerned the units would be populated by tenants, rather than owner/occupiers.

“The only troubles we’ve ever had in Mount Hawthorn are with renters,” Mr Wright says, adding he’d endured “two years of hell” from particularly troublesome temporary neighbours.

The group clapped as councillors rejected the application on the grounds it was too close to the edge of the block, but it came with a warning.

Cr Josh Topelberg pointed out units were allowed in that area, and if the applicant came back with a rejigged plan that was set back further from the street the council wouldn’t have a leg to stand on in knocking it back.

Cr Ros Harley reminded the chamber there was nothing wrong with renters. A tenant for 16 years, she said they “are our neighbours, they are our community… not all renters are bad, and not all home owner/occupiers are good”.

Projects like this will soon be disallowed in the area: after the WA planning commission’s new amendments go through, blocks this size may fit just two dwellings.

by DAVID BELL