Planning

The Greens (WA) support a community driven approach to land use planning. Planning should be based on the needs of communities, not on corporate profits. We need designated areas of little or no development to maintain a healthy ecosystem that provides safe drinking water, air free from harmful toxins, and thriving animal, bird, plant, insect and marine life.

Despite Labor’s consultation processes many community groups still feel that they are not being listened to. Community expectations expressed during such consultation processes have generally not been met.

Transport fuel supply should be a pivotal issue in land use planning due to the global decline in cheap oil production.

Goals

The Greens (WA) want:

• full community involvement in every stage of planning decisions at local and state levels
• public right of appeal on development and subdivision decisions to the State Administrative Tribunal (third Party Appeal Rights)
• sustainable rural and regional communities to reduce the pressure on metropolitan Perth
• a growth boundary around metropolitan Perth and regional cities/towns to limit urban sprawl
• incentives for development in regional centres outside Perth
• infill development that meets criteria for affordable and equitable social amenities and environmental standards

Initiatives

The Greens (WA) will initiate and support legislation and actions that:

• investigate how a drying climate and its adverse impact on agriculture in the southwest, along with the decline of global oil supply, will limit further population in Perth in the near future
• implement planning initiatives and incentives to reverse the present trend for people on low-incomes being forced out to Perth’s outer suburbs by high land and housing costs, by providing a substantial increase in Homeswest housing, funded housing cooperatives and legislating for mandatory affordable housing in private apartment and density developments in inner and middle suburbs
• re-direct subsidies for infrastructure development for outer suburbs to quality affordable and equitable infill development in middle and inner suburbs
• require land use planning to connect and integrate activity nodes with residential areas to favour walking, cycling and public transport use over car use
• strengthen the Western Australian Industrial Buffer Zone Policy to adequately protect the environment and public health from adverse industrial impacts
• ensure adequately resourced community engagement processes for all industrial and urban planning proposals
• ensure that new subdivisions have most streets laid out to facilitate passive solar house design
• pursue uniform national standards for energy rating of homes and other buildings and continue to support building codes which require new homes to have a minimum NatHERS rating1 of 7 stars
• assess the agricultural value of land proposed for rezoning from rural to urban to ensure that sufficient fertile land adjacent to population concentrations is retained for food production
• seek to reduce the distance food is transported and improve local self-sufficiency by supporting the establishment of community gardens as component of any greenfield or brownfield development
• bind Crown developments and public works by the same provisions as other developments
• make the provisions of State Planning Policies legally binding
• ensure that information being used by local and State planning authorities to make decisions is publicly accessible
• require planning decision makers to publish reasons for their decisions
• expand Town Planning Schemes to include provisions for environmental, conservation and sustainability purposes and merging planning and environmental assessment processes
• require the Western Australian Planning Commission (WAPC) to advertise and take public comment into account when making subdivision and development decisions in the same way as applies to rezoning decisions
• require WAPC meetings to be held in public, providing speaking/questions rights for members of the public in attendance
• require full minutes of WAPC meetings to be published on the WAPC website
• limit subdivision approval powers which authorise works that involve clearing or interference with aquatic systems

Third Party Appeal Rights

• ensure that the right of affected third parties to be notified should be entrenched in state legislation – the Planning and Development Act 2005 (so that notification rights are not contingent on differing local Government schemes)
• provide a right in the State Administrative Tribunal Act for a ‘third party submitter’ or ‘objector’ to apply for a merits review/appeal of a decision that either directly affects them or is a matter of public/environmental interest and in such cases, the third party should only be required to bear its own costs
• ensure the State Administrative Tribunal (SAT) has the power to make costs orders and require undertakings for damages should be removed in the case of legitimate third parties

Planning in the Coastal Zone

• oppose coastal developments that deny or impede public access to beaches and coastal waters
• retain public ownership of the coastline, the seabed, the estuaries and offshore islands of Western Australia
• review the existing State Planning Policies which allow buildings of up to 8 stories within 100 metres of the high-water mark, with a view to lowering the maximum height allowed to 4-5 stories
• establish Special Planning Policies for all coastal areas which include building height restrictions, adequate setback (taking into consideration predicted sea level rises), public access and a prohibition on canal developments
• protect coastal areas from the impacts of sea level rise and to maintain our beaches as public open space
• enforce at least the minimum 100-metre setback for development in the coastal zone
• prohibit new canal housing developments
• permit marina-style developments in limited zones established specifically for that purpose
• oppose the sale of the sea bed and river beds

Administrative Reform

• ensure that the appeals process is affordable and accessible
• require all town planning studies, schemes and regional plans to take account of the approaching decline of cheap oil and the consequent rising cost of transport
• require the WAPC to include someone with environmental/ conservation experience
• transform the Department of Planning and Infrastructure into a Planning and Transport Infrastructure Commission (PTIC) with regional and district committees and representatives chosen by these groups
• ensure planning incorporates recommendations of full environmental, health and social impact assessments of any large scale or strategic industrial or urban development plans in Western Australia

Glossary
1. NatHERS rating – the National House Energy Rating Scheme (NatHERS) measures the amount of energy required to keep a home comfortable and produces a rating out of 10 stars.