newsletters

Sent: Friday, 18 January 2008 1:10 PM
To: paolalovi@bigpond.com
Cc: mnegus@bigpond.com
Subject: FW: Re: Draft Dalkeith Redevelopment Plan

Dear Paola,
Cr Negus forwarded your concerns, and I hope you will not mind my replying to you.

I am of the opinion that the current Draft proposal has a severley negative impact on the quiet residential amenity of the area; and I do not support it in its current form. For the same reasons, I never supported Steve's when it came up for Council consideration.

Many Senior residents have expressed a desire to downsize their homes while retaining their independence and remaining in the area they have lived all their lives. Retirement Homes are not their choice.

As a Councillor, therefore, I would be looking for the right opportunity for a carefully and well-thought out plan which will enable these people the ability to find smaller homes in the Dalkeith area - townhouses and 2-3 bedroom apartments.

I sincerely feel that the area bounded by Adelma and Alexander Road along Waratah Avenue allows for the opportunity to build such homes. If we had the right setbacks from the street, I think a 3 storey development - with commercial use on the ground floor, and 2 floors of apartments above, would not be too imposing on the streetscape, nor impact on the privacy of neighbours across the road. It would enable people, especially the older residents, the convenience and safety of accessing shops and services (eg doctos and dentists etc) from their homes,- without having to cross roads.

I also think that the "link" area between Alexander Road and Roberts Road should be made R20 ie for duplexes.

I am against higher density around Dalkeith Primary School.

However, I have also made it clear to the Mayor and Cr Negus, that Council needs to be pro-active and ensure that we have traffic and parking mangement schemes firmly in place before we approve any development which will see a huge increase in vehicular traffic in the proposed area.

The proposed plan is, as I understand, in its very early stages and is far from being ?set in concrete?. The public consultation process was staggered ? immediate stakeholders(Landowners), then adjoining landowners, followed by surrounding landowners and then the public. Using the Rates database, all landowners in Dalkeith were sent letters (before Christmas) informing them of the proposal and consultation dates. The date for the Dalkeith Community
Meeting for 1st December was also advertised in The Post.          The
Planning
Department in Council is in the process of collating all the responses received
from the public.      Using these comments , the Planning Department will
subsequently revise the proposal and then re-present the new Proposal to
the Community in March for further comments.   A third ?revision? will then
take place.    Only then will the Draft be presented to Council for
further debate and discussion at a Workshop.    It will probably be sometime
in May 2008 before Council does vote on the Proposal and finalise the Scheme Amendment to TPS (Town Planning Scheme )2 . So, as you can see, the final decision is a long time away. Residents can continue to lobby Councillors until then.

If you look carefully at the Section ?Permitted Land Uses? in Section 6 of the Draft Guidelines , you can see it is erronous to think that "Hotels,Motels and Taverns" are allowable all over the proposed development area.

The Allowed Uses for the areas are designated ?P?, ?D?, or ?A?.

It is easy to assume that ?A? means Approved or Allowed - when it actually means that the use is not permitted unless the City grants planning approval after giving special notice in accordance with Clause 6.3 of Town Planning Scheme 2.

?D? also means the use is not permitted unless the City exercises discretion by granting planning approval.

So, if you go through all the Area Guidelines, you will see that, in actual fact, ?Hotels? as a permitted use only apply to Areas7, 8 ? where the current shopping center stands. (but I would not support the building of any Hotel in this
vicinity)
?Motels? are not a permitted use in the area ?Taverns? are also not a permitted use in the area

I hope this message allays some of your concerns, but please feel free to contact me again if you wish to clarify any other matters about the Draft Proposal.

Sincerely,
Cr Irene Tan
Melvista Ward
City of Nedland