Perth Voice Interactive

STIRLING city council has voted to stop letting people build separate granny flats in restrictive covenant areas.

Portions of Coolbinia, Menora and Mt Lawley are covered by 80-year old covenants allowing just one dwelling per 1000sqm: granny flats up to 70sqm had been exempted, as long as family members lived in them.

But recently the WA government changed planning rules to allow granny flats in covenant areas to be rented out.

Stirling is doing all it can to stop granny flats in covenant areas being rented out: by demanding they be physically attached to the property’s main dwelling they hope to make it an unattractive proposition to homeowners.

Cr Samantha Jenkinson—who has been wheelchair-bound since a road accident when she was 19—says the move could affect people’s privacy.

“I know people who have elderly relatives or people with disabilities living in granny flats and I think it would impact their sense of independence and privacy if it was attached to the main dwelling,” she says.

“In that sense a separate building is preferable.”

Cr Joe Ferrante says the move safeguards Stirling’s heritage.

“People buy into these areas for the soul and the strong heritage protection,” he says.

by STEPHEN POLLOCK