South Perth council, angry at being forced to back down on building heights in its CBD, has launched a campaign for the government to do more than vaguely indicate it might build a train station one day.
The train station has been promised by successive state governments since 2002, according to the city, but the government's draft Transport @ 3.5 Million: Perth Transport Plan, which plans out to 2050 did not mention it.
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High Rise Fight
South Perth residents are fighting for height restrictions to buildings in the area. Vision: Nine News Perth.
The government imposed a target for the council of creating 8300 new lots for infill dwellings by 2050, and the council set about achieving this with new zoning for areas including South Perth Station Precinct.
A rush of applications for high-rise residential towers caused alarm to surrounding residents facing extreme loss of amenity and the city attempted to reintroduce height limits in the area recently to curb this exponential growth.
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But Planning Minister Donna Faragher recently announced the city would have to allow unlimited heights and also relax its commercial space requirements, which the council had hoped would turn the area into an employment destination.
Mayor Sue Doherty said the 2011 rezonings assumed a total resident population of around 1700 in the precinct and by last June there were already more than 2000 residents in the station zone.
"With the Planning Minister's recent changes to Amendment No. 46, development within the South Perth Station Precinct will only continue to intensify, yet no provision has been made to accommodate the transport needs of the increasing population," she said.
"The Minister's modifications make it even more difficult for the city to accurately and holistically plan for infrastructure, parking, traffic and transport as we simply cannot predict the scale of future developments."
Ms Doherty said estimations showed a station could achieve boardings of more than 5000 people per day by 2026, far more than were boarding numerous existing metropolitan stations now.
The City had commissioned polling of 762 residents that showed more than 68 per cent wanted a train station and 61 per cent saying they would use it regularly.
"Residents are frustrated that the South Perth train station was proposed back in 2002 as part of the Perth to Mandurah Rail development, and 15 years later nothing has progressed," she said.
"The City of South Perth is calling on the State Government to commit funds.
"There is a massive push ... for urban infill, but quite frankly the transport infrastructure is not up to scratch."
The city late last year commissioned a private firm to prepare a business case for the train station to give the government in response to its exclusion from the public transport plan draft.
Ms Doherty said the minister's changes to the city's attempts to provide certainty around building heights were not in the long-term interests of the local community but the city had no option but to comply.
"The city is deeply disappointed," she said.
"Residents have repeatedly voiced their dissatisfaction with planning and development outcomes.
"The public benefits and certainty the city was aiming to achieve have now been significantly diluted."
She said the modifications introduced new subjective criteria for height bonuses for 'exemplary', 'sensitive' or 'sophisticated' design and 'high levels of amenity', with developers having only to convince the local Development Assessment Panel they passed muster.
The city's vision had been to create an area rich in businesses and jobs.
"At the current time, it appears the WA Government is unable or unwilling to support the city in achieving this vision," she said.
Read the Minister's required modifications here.
Minister Faragher and Transport Minister Bill Marmion were contacted for comment.