A large amount of traffic modelling has been completed for the South Perth activity centre and surrounding area over the past several years. The City engaged expert consultants FLYT to complete a report on the existing and forecast transport conditions within the activity centre plan area. The findings of this report are discussed in Part 2 of the draft Plan and the report itself is attached to the plan as Appendix 2 – Transport and Movement Analysis.
Overall, the street network in the activity centre area performs well under forecast growth scenarios and its configuration supports existing and future development as well as use by all transport modes. However, traffic forecasts show that the majority of road links in the area will be operating over capacity in peak times by 2031 unless a greater proportion of trips are made by non-car transport modes.
There is a strong focus in the draft South Perth Activity Centre Plan on reducing car use in the area. The ferry and bus services provide public transport options and the high quality public realm encourages pedestrians and cycling. Increasing the use of non-car transport modes is important to ensure that the transport network remains efficient as the local area and wider city grow.
An activity centre is an area where there is a concentration of commercial, retail (including shopping, cafes, restaurants and bars) and residential land uses. Due to the land uses in activity centres they are also focal points in the transport network.
State Government planning policies encourage development in activity centres to improve services and business opportunities, increase housing close to jobs and services, and to improve the sustainability of the transport network by supporting walking, cycling and public transport.
The State Government has organised the activity centres within metropolitan Perth into a hierarchy, to inform and help coordinate the planning of these important areas. There are 50 activity centres within the central sub-region of Perth, with the central business district being the largest.
South Perth is classified as a district centre. District centres have a focus on servicing the daily and weekly needs of residents. They should aim to provide a local community focus and provide services, facilities and job opportunities that reflect the particular needs of their catchments. In South Perth, this includes recognising the location of the area adjacent to the Perth central business district.
An Activity Centre Plan (ACP) is a document that provides the guiding framework for the planning and development of an activity centre. An ACP sets out the strategic vision for an area and the statutory planning requirements for development. An ACP guides the types of land uses and the overall development (including built form) that is intended to occur within the activity centre. It can detail land uses, environmental assets, residential density, built form, infrastructure and access arrangements.
An ACP includes:
- An Executive Summary;
- Part One implementation section, which contains the requirements against which development will be assessed;
- Part Two explanatory section, which contains the background information and rationale for Part One; and
- Technical Appendices.
State Government planning policy requires that the City prepare an Activity Centre Plan (ACP) for the area.
In 2011 the City of South Perth and Western Australian Planning Commission completed the South Perth Station Precinct Plan, which provided a framework to guide development in the area surrounding the planned South Perth train station. The vision of the South Perth Station Precinct Plan is to create a vibrant, attractive business location featuring a rich choice of employment, public transport options, and pedestrian friendly tree-lined streets, with reminders of South Perth’s heritage. The Minister for Planning approved an amendment to Town Planning Scheme No. 6 in 2013 to create the South Perth Station Precinct and implement the Precinct Plan.
Plans such as the South Perth Station Precinct Plan should generally be reviewed every five years to ensure that they are operating effectively. In addition, a Special Electors Meeting was held in May 2015 to discuss development within the Station Precinct. Following this meeting, the Council resolved to review the Town Planning Scheme No. 6 provisions pertaining to the South Perth Station Precinct and the geographic extent of that precinct.
To address the concerns raised at the Special Electors Meeting, consultants were engaged by the City in 2016 to review the vision set out in the South Perth Station Precinct Plan with input from a wide range of stakeholders. The aim of this project was to renew the vision and direction of the area by bringing all stakeholders together to discuss their concerns and aspirations and collectively develop approaches for managing the area’s growth in a way that captures the most benefit for the Peninsula’s residents, workers and visitors.
The project centred on a 5-day Planning Design Forum, which brought over 100 stakeholders together with expert facilitators, urban designers and planners, architects, landscape architects, traffic engineers and economists to discuss the future of the Precinct, its streets and public spaces, community infrastructure, built form and transport.
A report was presented to Council in June 2017 detailing the outcomes of the Planning Design Forum and providing recommendations for the further planning of the Activity Centre. This report is available on the South Perth Station Precinct page of this website.
The Activity Centre Plan is based on the outcomes of the Place and Design Report.
Perth and Peel@3.5 Million is the State Government’s land use planning and infrastructure framework, which aims to accommodate a population of 3.5 million people in Perth by the year 2050.
The suite of documents includes an overarching strategic framework and sub-regional frameworks (for the Central, North-West, North-East and South Metropolitan Peel sub-regions) and sets out where new development should be located to make best use of existing and proposed infrastructure and to protect important environmental assets.
The City of South Perth is located within the Central sub-region.
The draft South Perth Activity Centre Plan applies to the area north of Richardson Park, and north and west of Perth Zoo as shown below.
The City is currently preparing its first Local Planning Strategy. The draft Local Planning Strategy was approved by Council in September 2018 and will be formally endorsed by the Western Australian Planning Commission before it is advertised for public comment.
The Local Planning Strategy (LPS) is a high level document that identifies where more detailed plans (such as activity centre plans) are to be prepared. The LPS must also reflect state government policy and previous decisions made by the local government.
The South Perth activity centre is classified as a district centre in the state activity centre hierarchy and therefore requires an activity centre plan in accordance with state government policy. Council resolved to prepare an activity centre plan for the South Perth centre in June 2017, following the place and design project.
The draft South Perth Activity Centre Plan should be read together with proposed town planning scheme amendment no. 61. The two documents have been developed together and, once finalised and approved, they will provide the guiding framework (strategic vision and statutory framework) for the planning and development of the area.
The draft South Perth Activity Centre Plan will be required to be given due regard in determining development applications once finalised and approved. The requirements in proposed town planning scheme amendment no. 61 will become part of the City’s town planning scheme once the amendment is approved.
The proposed town planning scheme amendment contains the key development requirements, including:
- Character area objectives
- Zoning, residential density coding and land uses
- Requirements that define the building envelope (building height, plot ratio, podium setbacks, podium height, podium site cover, tower setbacks, tower separation and tower maximum gross floorplate area)
- Requirements for the approval of additional height and plot ratio above the base limits.
The draft South Perth Activity Centre Plan provides objectives, explanation and background to support the requirements in the proposed amendment, as well as additional requirements that must also be considered when assessing development proposals.
The current population of the activity centre plan area is 2,675 people. This is forecast to grow to 4,750 people by the year 2031, and 7,500 people by 2041.
The City engaged expert consultants RPS to prepare a report on the potential for growth of the South Perth activity centre, including assessment of projections for population, employment, floor space, tourists/visitors, and retail expenditure. This report outlines the most likely growth trajectory for the area over the 25 years from 2016 to 2041.
The scenario testing and modelling undertaken for the draft South Perth Activity Centre Plan examines the full economic and social potential of the area. This evidence base informs planning for new infrastructure and development of controls on land use and built form that manage and shape the expected demand. These controls and the infrastructure and services that are developed then become constraints on development that shape the actual growth of the area over the life of the plan.
More information on the forecast growth of the activity centre plan area can be found in Part 2 of the draft South Perth Activity Centre Plan. The full Economic and Demographic Assessment report is attached to the plan as Appendix 1.
The development requirements in the draft activity centre plan and town planning scheme amendment have been modelled to ensure that they provide enough capacity to accommodate the amount of demand that is forecast for the area in the Economic and Demographic Assessment (Appendix 1 to the draft South Perth Activity Centre Plan).
The Economic and Demographic Assessment provides the data and evidence base to support the rationale for the activity centre plan provisions. If the plan is not based on a robust population forecast there is a large risk that it will not be able to appropriately manage the demand for development into the future.
If the activity centre plan does not allow for the forecast demand, the risk is that there could be pressure for proposals that do not fit within the City's vision for the area. This can lead to ad-hoc and potentially undesirable outcomes over which the City has little or no control. There is therefore greater risk in under-estimating demand than in over-estimating.
The Activity Centre Plan has a 10 year timeframe and will be reviewed approximately every 5 years, and updated to reflect the most up to date information for the area (including population forecasts and other factors as they arise). The aim is to provide a consistent and robust vision with a clear planning framework and an appropriate level of certainty to support investment and economic development in the short-, medium- and long-term.
The long-term vision for the area will not be fully realised within a 10 year timeframe. By starting with a long-term view, the plan aims to ensure that development in the short-term supports, and is consistent with, the ‘bigger picture’ vision.
The Draft Activity Centre Plan includes forecast key statistics including population, number of dwellings and the amount of commercial floorspace for the years 2031 and 2041. These figures provide an estimate of the expected growth and a baseline for future monitoring and evaluation of the plan.
The Perth-Mandurah rail line includes space within the railway reserve (between the tracks) near the end of Richardson Street to construct a South Perth station in the future. The future development of a train station has been incorporated into strategic planning for the area since the rail line was constructed in 2007.
It is not known when a train station may be constructed, however a station would improve the accessibility of the area by public transport and would support higher urban densities within the activity centre.
Longer term development in accordance with the draft South Perth Activity Centre Plan will support the construction of a train station. Although the development of the station is not a direct objective of the activity centre plan, the development controls and other actions identified in the plan are expected to strengthen the case for a station to be built.
After the town planning scheme amendment no. 61 is approved by the Minister for Planning it becomes part of the City of South Perth Town Planning Scheme No. 6. The Activity Centre Plan must be approved by the Western Australian Planning Commission (WAPC) and once approved it is to be given due regard in determining applications for development approval.
The Draft Activity Centre Plan and amendment must be advertised for public comment before they can be considered in the assessment and determination of applications for development approval. The weight to be given to either draft document must be determined by reference to the following four criteria:
- The degree to which the Activity Centre Plan/amendment addresses the specific application.
- The degree to which the Activity Centre Plan/amendment is based on sound town planning principles.
- The degree to which the Activity Centre Plan/amendment’s ultimate approval could be regarded as 'certain'.
- The degree to which the Activity Centre Plan/amendment’s ultimate approval could be regarded as 'imminent'.
After the Draft Activity Centre Plan and amendment have been advertised and prior to final approval by the WAPC and Minister respectively, the weight given to either document is relative to how far they have progressed through the approval process. The further the documents progress through the process the more weight they may be given.
