Perth Voice Interactive

FUTURE BAYSWATER has welcomed a council decision to delay a structure plan for the area around the Bayswater train station.

The group is made up of business owners and community members, who are concerned Bayswater city council might waste $120,000 on an “underscoped and underbudgeted” structure plan.

Structure plans guide the zoning of development areas but need a planning scheme amendment to give them teeth. A document produced by the council indicated the amendment wouldn’t be sought, which had Future Bayswater members scratching their heads.

After local lobbying, councillors deferred issuing a tender for the job, and Future Bayswater hopes that means a more robust process is being considered.

Fork in the road

The Bayswater town centre is at a fork in the road, with competing community groups holding different visions.

Future Bayswater’s Michelle Hogan says she hopes the structure plan will bring more people to live in the town centre, providing customers and economic security to the 30-odd businesses in the area.

The groups says multiple dwellings will give young people and older downsizers affordable options.

Meanwhile, residents group Bayswater Deserves Better has opposed a seven-storey development at 9-11 King William Street and fear that sets the wrong precedent for the suburb. The group says a big concern is parking and traffic, as well as the loss of trees.

Bayswater councillor Chris Cornish wrote on his blog the development has “divided the community”

“Some people are desperate to see any development occur in an area which has been starved of development, others want a more controlled development, others want the Jacaranda tree preserved and others want the heritage buildings preserved in their entirety,” Cr Cornish said.

Ms Hogan says Future Bayswater wants “Quimby, not nimby: Quality in my backyard”.

The group wants a broad structure plan covering more than building heights, including greenery, pedestrian access, and environmental technology.

Bayswater council will now go back to the drawing board, figuring out a grander (and likely more expensive) scope for the structure plan before tendering it out.

Bayswater Deserves Better group have asked planning minister Donna Faragher to use her discretionary powers to overturn the development assessment panel’s approval of 9-11 King William Street. It’s been near two months and they’re still waiting.

by DAVID BELL