ALANNAH MacTIERNAN is unhappy about a $16 million redevelopment just metres from her electorate office on Beaufort Street.

This week the local development assessment panel approved plans to demolish the Inglewood IGA at the corner of Tenth Avenue, and replace it with a three-to-five storey building with 82 dwellings, an office, shop and restaurant.

The federal Perth Labor MP and former WA planning minister says the mixed-use site has too much concrete.

“Bar a few plants it’s extremely lacking in any greenery—not enough mature trees or the like,” she says.

• An artistic image of the development. Image supplied

“If you’re going to have that level of density, with limited parking, you need to be close to high quality, frequent public transport, or have a scheme with pooled electric cars.

“The city of Stirling has been a bit slow of the mark with its vision for Beaufort Street—it needs to be more proactive.”

Earlier this year, the DAP refused the application 5-0—saying it didn’t want the adjacent Lawry Lane to become one way, and that multiple dwellings on the ground floor facing the street are not permitted in a mixed use zone. The applicants reapplied with an amended plan and they’ve sailed through.

Former Stirling councillor Paul Collins, whose family business owns commercial property in Inglewood town centre, also opposed the development, arguing it was overly intrusive on the existing streetscape, out of scale and proportion to existing heritage and character, and granted a 50 per cent plot ratio increase and 60 per cent height increase above the allowed maximum.

“We feel sorry for our tenants and the other small businesses and residents in the area with parking pressures only going to increase,” he says.

“Unfortunately, the streetscape of Tenth Ave has also been destroyed by an access ramp and services that should have been put to the rear laneway.

“This state government’s unelected development assessment panels are chaired and majority controlled by representatives of professions serving the property development industry—the community is powerless under this state government.”

by STEPHEN POLLOCK