Monday, 7, November, 2022
2:00pm
In what appears to be a desperate measure, Satterley is dragging its dangerous and destructive North Stoneville SP34 plan for the Perth Hills back for re-assessment, by the same local community which rejected it in record numbers almost four years ago.
During a brief hearing with the State Administrative Tribunal (SAT) on Friday November 4, in which two years of confidential mediation officially ended, Satterley revealed it was working on an ‘amended’ plan to be ready for public comment between January and March next year.
Community group Save Perth Hills believes this indicates Satterley is not confident its original plan would win in a Full Hearing at SAT, so it's going back with a ‘modified’ plan to the Community and to WA’s Planning Commission (WAPC), to try for a second time, to get it over the line.
The proposed North Stoneville land sits on 555-hectares in the Mundaring Shire. It’s owned by the Anglican Perth Diocese, surrounded by a proven Extreme Bushfire Zone and within ember-attack reach of John Forrest National Park. The site is 150-hectares bigger than Kings Park and covers more ground than New York’s Central Park and London’s Hyde Park combined.
Led by Community group Save Perth Hills, urbanisation attempts of this land have been recently rejected since 1991, with the ‘North Stoneville’ 31-year fight, WA’s longest-running local community battle.
Public submissions on Satterley’s ‘amended’ plan, will be considered in June by WAPC. The WAPC rejected the original plan in 2020 because it contravened four State Planning Polices. These included natural hazards and disasters, bushfire safety, and the environment. More than 200 hectares of ‘high to excellent value’ native vegetation and forest, and endangered species’ habitats would be destroyed, along with 14 registered Aboriginal archaeological sites. DFES, the Shire of Mundaring Council, and politicians from every side and level of government, have also rejected the plan.
When community submissions were last sought on North Stoneville, 1,050 were received strongly opposing the proposed sprawling and isolated suburban estate.
“How many rejections does Satterley and the Anglican Diocese need to understand urbanisation of this bushfire prone site is totally unacceptable to the local community?” SPH Chair, Jeremy Hurst, said.
“Satterley’s original plan was fraught with bushfire, environment and health problems. Make no mistake, if Satterley believes it can ‘tweak’ its plan to make it ‘approvable’, our Community will respond in even greater numbers than before. Australia’s increasing bushfire disasters, including in Perth’s Hills, prove that populating extreme bushfire regions is dangerous and deadly. There can be no compromise on any plan that places thousands of people, knowingly, in harm’s way,” Jeremy said.
Satterley has a long and dismal Community track record in the Shire of Mundaring:
• Almost 1,050 public submissions rejected Satterley’s North Stoneville plan.
• A record 1,200 residents crammed a Special Council meeting to witness Mundaring Council unanimously reject the North Stoneville plan in August 2019
• WAPC endorsed the Community opposition by rejecting Satterley’s plan in July 2020.
“Our community has spoken. Our changing climate has spoken. And increasing bushfire disasters have spoken to developers such as Satterley. Perth’s Hills cannot safely support suburban-style potential firetrap developments,” Jeremy said.
Satterley’s indifference to the local bushfire prone community is revealed in its intended release of the amended plan – in the middle of the Community’s bushfire emergency season.
“Asking our Community to tell Satterley what they think of their ‘Take #2-North Stoneville’ plan, at the height of our bushfire emergency season, is insulting and insensitive. It illustrates a total lack of community connection and understanding of the bushfire risks and realities we face,” Jeremy said.
Save Perth Hills said Satterley’s ‘tweaking’ now meant the local community had to endure a 32nd bushfire season surrounded by continued uncertainty of this three-decades-long saga.
“North Stoneville symbolically holds major planning implications for all of Australia’s bushfire prone communities,” Jeremy said.
“We had hoped that Anglican Archbishop and Perth Diocesan Trustees’ member, Kay Goldsworthy, would choose to exercise her power and graciously call an end to North Stoneville. In doing so, the Archbishop would’ve aligned herself to the realities of bushfire prone communities everywhere, as well as with her own Church’s formal declaration of a Climate Change Emergency. Sadly, this didn’t occur and now WA taxpayers will need to fund more costly proceedings,” he said.
“Australia’s Extreme Bushfire Prone regions require planning provisions that, unequivocally, place people’s safety ahead of private profits. Planning in our volatile bushfire regions must safeguard, and never endanger, people’s lives. Save Perth Hills will accept nothing less.”
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