Perth Voice Interactive

A DOGGIE daycare in the old West Perth scout hall will head to the State Administrative Tribunal after being rejected by City of Perth commissioners last week.

Council planners had recommended the pooch palace be approved, but after howls of protest from 14 objectors and a deputation from the strata company of a nearby office block, commissioners Andrew Hammond and Gaye McMath weren’t convinced applicant Marian Gorman could keep her clients’ yapping to acceptable levels.

Ms Gorman had already finished some of the fit outs for Madame Ma’s Doggie Daycare, and was looking at installing sound-dampening panels, double-glazed windows,  rubberised floors and a non-doggie buffer room.

Smells

She had a plan for barky dogs to get one-on-one time with staff to settle them down, with a final measure of sending relentlessly yappy dogs home if they just couldn’t hush. Ms Gorman, a mining engineer who looks after foster dogs when she’s not on site, says Madame Ma’s isn’t a kennel: “It’s a very high-class establishment targeting pampered pooches,” she said.

Giovanni Monaco chairs the strata company for a neighbouring office block and says apart from potential smells, noises and an eye-watering pink building, suits in the business district didn’t want to be confronted by dogs.

“It is hard to imagine a professional organisation wanting to look out of their window in the morning, during the day, and then in the afternoon when they are meeting with business leaders, only to then see dogs going in and out of that building, a building that is going to be painted a pink colour,” Mr Monaco said.

”It will make it professionally untenable.”

He said it was already difficult to rent out office space and in a worst case scenario the dogs could lead to lower property prices and some businesses being forced into liquidation.

During the item, commissioners took the rare step of suspending standing orders to let the mum of a potential pooch minder speak.

“There’s three people waiting for jobs – three people that don’t have jobs right now that are going to be employed by this business,” Joanne Huggins said.

“One of those people is my daughter – and she hasn’t been employed full time for over two years.

“This is quite emotive for me, because I can see something very good being thrown out because of one person’s opinion about pink and noise.”

by DAVID BELL

THE McGowan government has announced $30 million funding to jumpstart the long-stalled East Perth power station redevelopment.

“For too long this site has been left to waste on the banks of our river,” WA premier Mark McGowan said of the commitment.

“I want to see it progress because it provides a unique opportunity to create something special for our state.”

An expression of interest process for what to do with the museum started four years ago but it stalled.

It’s a tough nut because Western Power infrastructure surrounding the site is a big put-off for developers, and the $30 million will go towards relocating it.

Perth state MP John Carey told the Voice: “It has enormous potential to be another great precinct and tourist attractor of our city… the premier is very clear, and I’m very clear, that the main building must be open to the public.”

STIRLING council is taking a u-turn on a right-turn ban at a dangerous Mt Lawley intersection.

Community opposition over plans to make an intersection left-turn only when going from Carrington Street onto Second Ave in Mt Lawley has caused the council to back down.

Local businesswoman Jan Wilkie initiated the community campaign and said: “They listened, we’re delighted.”

The intersection is a blackspot — Ms Wilkie herself was hospitalised after her car was hit by a truck two years ago— but the council’s plan to fix it up was not warmly received.

Eighty people turning out to a public meeting in March and others criticised the plan in social media forums. Residents on neighbouring streets said it would simply push the problem onto them.

Stirling councillors heeded those calls and at the April 16 full council meeting unanimously voted for staff to consult with residents and come up with “alternative treatments”.

A meeting between the city and residents will be held in the next week or so.

Cr Elizabeth Re suggested a road traffic study for the wider area, but only Cr Karlo Perkov backed her and the motion was lost.

by DAVID BELL

A 27-level tower part-owned by Homeswest is in the pipeline for 192 Pier Street, with City of Perth commissioners ignoring a staff recommendation and giving it a tick.

The commissioners have recommended the WA Planning Commission approve the application for the mixed use tower, which will have 184 apartments, restaurant, and a shared community space. Thirty per cent of the apartments would be either Homeswest or provided as affordable housing.

Council officers had recommended the application be refused because the tower was bigger than planning rules allow, even accounting for the plot ratio bonuses the city affords to social housing projects.

City fabric

But commissioner Andrew Hammond said he and colleague Gaye McMath had the right to approve developments that didn’t conform if they added enough value to the social, economic and environmental fabric of the city.

“The city is currently experiencing many challenges with homelessness and rough sleeping,” commissioner Hammond said.

“Whilst social housing is definitely not a quick fix for this difficult and pressing issue, it sits at both ends of the homelessness continuum.

“The lack of social and affordable housing, in the first instant, is clearly identified as one of the causal factors of homelessness. At the other end of the continuum, when the victims of homelessness have received the necessary support and care so as to be ready and able to take up tenancy in social housing, it is critically important that capacity exists.”

The land is owned by the Housing Department but the development will be done by the private sector (Roberts Day were the applicant, Klopper & Davis the architects, and developer Peet Limited are project managing).

“This development clearly demonstrates that with appropriate incentives [giving extra plot ratio], social housing can be delivered by the private sector in an integrated, sensible and dignified manner,” Commr Hammond said.

Back in 2005, a more modest eight-storey Housing Department development was approved on the site. It never went ahead.

The $50 million tower is classed as “public works” because of the social housing component.

Final approval rests with the state’s Development Assessment Panel.

by DAVID BELL

THERE’S wide support for an community garden in Inglewood with 98 per cent of respondents in favour of having it at the bowling club at 1 Stancliffe Street.

Stirling council got 189 responses when it consulted over the garden, with only three people opposed (concerned over traffic, ratepayer funds going to “non-essential projects”, and doing this before the full plans for Hamer Park/Inglewood Oval were finalised).

It’s twice as many responses as when they consulted on the Hamersley community garden.

The bowls club wanted to administer the garden, but council will “excise” the land so it can have a direct relationship with the garden committee.

Council staff said that would make funding and administration easier in the long term.

It’ll now go to the full council for a decision, and they’ll also consider allocating $20,000 in “capital seed funding” to develop the garden in the 2019/20 budget.

SOME of WA’s best comics and authors will be at Maylands Library this month to celebrate National Library and Information Week.

Jon Doust, Annabel Smith, Norman Jorgensen, David Whish-Wilson and Bruce Russell will be sharing anecdotes and discussing the impact of truth, integrity and knowledge on writing at the special May 23 event.

Bayswater mayor Dan Bull said it would be a chance for locals to get a rare insight into life as an author.

“The theme of this year’s Library and Information Week – truth, integrity and knowledge – is relevant in all writing, even fiction, Cr Bull says.

“Particularly now, in an age where we have the ability to fact check anything we read right there on the spot.

“This free event is a great opportunity to learn all about writing as a hobby or in a professional sense, or just have a fun evening out listening to these incredible authors share some of their experiences.”

The event is from 6pm-7.30pm at Maylands Library, 28 Eighth Avenue.

Register at http://www.eventbrite.com.au. Library and Information week runs from May 20-24.

THE future of Maylands Waterland might be a bit murky, but Bayswater council picked up two gongs for sustainable water management this month.

The city won the inaugural Waterwise Council Community Choice Award for its Russell Street Park project, with the vote left in the hands of the public.

The project saw the city partner with state government departments to convert an old stormwater drain into a series of living streams and a pop-up ninja park.

The city was also awarded Gold Waterwise status for the second year.

“The city has brought various water management agencies together to work towards a common goal – improving the quality of water flowing into the Swan River,” Bayswater mayor Dan Bull said.

“This big-picture thinking is one of the reasons our council continues to receive recognition in the area of environment and sustainability.

“The great thing about our Russell Street Park project is that it has been successful in both improving water quality and providing the community with a unique recreational space to enjoy.

“And winning the community choice award tells us we’re not the only ones who think so.”

The Waterwise program – a partnership between the Water Corporation and the Department of Water and Environmental Regulation – helps councils improve their water efficiency and sustainability.