Hi to everyone.
I arranged a meeting with Mayor Sheryl Froese and she came over and met with me on Tuesday afternoon. We discussed the Dalkeith concept plan for 1.5 hours. My feeling is that the meeting was positive and constructive and achieved a good outcome.
PADD appears to have a real voice and one that is being listened to.
The mayor told me that she will not be voting in favour of the redevelopment plan in its current format.
She does not support the concept of high density or high rise in Dalkeith and she is opposed to subdivision. The rider to that is that she will listen to the residents on the subdivision issue because Council is being lobbied strongly in that regard.
She, the other councillors and the planners are eagerly awaiting the PADD written submissions in response to the concept plan. She urged me to make sure we made a detailed constructive written submission by 15 Feb (earlier if we could). She discussed it with the Director of Development Services before coming to see me and Administration will act on it once received.
In answer to me asking the question, she said that we don't need to present it with hundreds of residents' signatures attached to it as it will be taken to be the view of a large number of residents, although she wants to check this first. I said we will work on submissions and put them in as soon as we could.
She told me Administration will collate the submissions and revise the concept drawings. Council will then consider the revised drawings (ie, vote) - the aim is for this to occur in May 2008. Prior to this, the revised drawings will be available to look at in the Dalkeith Hall for a week with a Council officer present to field questions.
Once this concept is approved for advertising as the official draft by Council and the Environmental Protection Authority there will be a 3 month consultation period.
During this phase there will be open days at Dalkeith Hall, workshops in Dalkeith Hall, advertisements in newspapers, web info and letters to ratepayers.
She considers this period to be the most important period in the process and if people need more than 3 months she would consider giving an extension to this period.
In response to our petition that you all signed, the Mayor told me that she “has already asked for the current consultation period to be extended once and she is of the view that any further extension beyond 15 February 2008 will push the entire project into the next Christmas period and this is something that she wishes to avoid. She will not support another extension. HOWEVER she is personally of the opinion that late submissions be accepted after the nominated closing date and she will ask Administration to include this in the process”. I asked her for this in writing and she has provided written confirmation of what I have just stated.
I addressed the lack of public notice issue, appearance of clandestine meetings with land owners, secrecy etc. I told her that the residents are very angry about how this has been handled by Council. I took her through the Post ads (x2) that were printed in Dec 07. I said that all the ads stated was “public meeting on Built Form Guidelines”. Who could possibly know what this meant other than the privileged few? I addressed the supposed lengthy and informative letter sent by the City of Nedlands to all Dalkeith ratepayers that Council is adamant was sent in mid Dec 07. I told her that one of my neighbours is the only one that I know that got that letter. She said that admin had assured her it had been sent. I assured her that it had not been sent to all the ratepayers. I suggested to her that one of the first things she needs to do is make sure that that letter is now sent urgently to all Dalkeith ratepayers. I requested email notification of when that is and told her that I will be emailing it to PADD people to verify whether or not it is received by the ratepayers.
The Mayor said that “she is trying to draft” a letter in response to the many emails she has received while on vacation, thanking them for their constructive feedback and letting them know about the process and confirming her views.
She will organize for Council to send out a detailed email (to be posted as well) providing more information. That will be copied to me contemporaneously.
The Mayor found our dialogue helpful and wants to continue to be in touch with me over this issue.
I asked her where the plan had come from. She said that there had been a long history including the housing diversity study, the new town planning scheme and lobbying from landowners both private and commercial/retail in the area. In response to this, Administration outsourced to consultants the task of putting together a new development plan for Dalkeith. With regard to what the present Plan proposes in Circe Circle around the school, the Council project team has apparently seen such building in the eastern states and was of the view that it achieved increases without being too imposing to the streetscape.
The Mayor also mentioned that she and the other Councillors did not see the final current concept drawings until the evening before they were presented to the landowners. I asked her why she didn't scrap the document there and then and direct Administration to start again on a very smaller scale. She said that the plans had come so far by that stage and Administration wanted the opportunity to get public feedback. The Mayor mentioned that it was she who had asked Administration to place the advertisements on the local notice board and at the coffee shops in an effort to raise public awareness.
The Mayor’s feeling is that the State government is not pressuring them into adopting the documented plan but Dalkeith has apparently been identified by the government as "an area capable of taking change”.
The Council is however, being pressured to submit a Town Planning Scheme No3 ASAP that is different to the one that got handed back to Council by the govt in 2005. The Mayor feels that with some changes it has a reasonable prospect of being accepted by the govt.
Her feeling is that the plans for redevelopment on Stirling Hwy are going to be the real sticking point as that has been "earmarked" (not just "identified") by the govt for major change and redevelopment.
So that's it. Now we have to go to work on finalising the submissions.
What I need from you all now within 7 days is the following:
- an email saying whether or not you consider that PADD is representing your view point on the Dalkeith Redevelopment Plan;
- for you to email this to all the people you know living in Dalkeith and for them to email me on this issue as well;
- your very brief view on allowing any subdivision in Dalkeith. Please tell me if you are for:
- “no subdivision at all”,
- “subdivision to be restricted to certain streets or sections and if so, which streets or sections”
- “side by side development on blocks over 1000sqm with wide street frontages and if so, where in Dalkeith”
- “subdivision of only corner blocks and if so, which corner blocks”
- “duplex type development - R20/25 - on subdivided land and if so, where”
- something else;
- a combination of the above;
- again I want to hear from your friends and neighbours on this.
You must keep your responses very brief or else I won’t be able to get through them all.
In regards to building on the land around the school in the manner proposed by the Concept Plan, I am assuming you are all against this.
I am also assuming that none of you want 4 or 5 storey high rise on Waratah Ave or anywhere else in Dalkeith or taverns/hotels/motels but that you would like to see the existing commercial/retail strip redeveloped tastefully (but not extended) and that you are not opposed to some housing diversity options (mixed commercial/residential) on Waratah Ave limited to the current commercial strip.
My last assumption is that you would not be opposed to the Dalkeith Hall site (which Council owns freehold) being redeveloped into housing for the over 55s in addition to community facilities being provided on that site and perhaps some medical suites.
Only if your views are contrary to this please email me briefly.
Regards
Paola Lovi
Chairperson PADD