What is Scarborough’s normal?

The serene images of the turquoise waters, golden sands and landscaped foreshore juxtaposed by vibrant night time activities. It has a rich history that is embedded in Perth’s psyche as a prime beachfront destination for locals and visitors alike that brings a great diversity of people that at times inspires and delights, while others are less so. Each generation, era, fad, or event adding another layer and story to tell.

The planning and development context, has seemed to take its lead from this background in recent times with Alan Bond’s Observation City development in 1986, leading up to the America’s Cup defence in 1987, being steeped in controversy at the time and with as many admirers as detractors years later. The subsequent years were littered with debates over how Scarborough should develop (if at all!). The most recent chapter to the story has been the State Government introducing a Redevelopment Area in 2013 to act as a circuit breaker from stalled development attempts with two main levers. The first was to partner with the City of Stirling to revitalise the foreshore area. While nothing is perfect, it was as good as I saw the State and Local Government collaborate on such a project. While some aspects are still to be complete, the outcome has been well received and achieved its objective of reinforcing Scarborough as a must visit destination with continuing efforts to increasing its accessibility down Scarborough Beach Road.

The second lever was to reset the planning and development environment by transferring planning authority to the State Government’s Metropolitan Redevelopment Authority with a new Redevelopment Scheme implemented in 2016. This generated renewed interest and activity in the area, but consistent with its past, the proposals and decisions that followed generated much debate within both the local and wider community. Whether this part of the redevelopment has been a success is more hotly debated.With only 7 years since the new Redevelopment Scheme was implemented, I would suggest Anthony Green from ABC’s Election Coverage would say this one is “too early to call”.

Notwithstanding, the development aspect of the project still has a way to play out, moves are underway to “Normalise” Scarborough. The definition of Normalise, according to Cambridge Dictionary, is to return to the normal or usual situation. In a Mechanical Engineering context, according the Collins Dictionary, Normalizing is a process in which a metal is cooled in air after being heated in order to relieve stress. Perhaps this latter definition is not far off the mark as a metaphor in this context.

Given Redevelopment Areas have been a part of Western Australian planning landscape for over three decades I think it is somewhat peculiar they are still not considered a “normal” part of the system, but that is a topic for another time.

In today’s world, the discussion of “normal’ is a vexed conversation in itself, so lets accept that it is the

process of returning planning authority from whence is came ie the City of Stirling and WA Planning Commission. This also means returning to the previous Regional and Local Scheme settings, unless they have been amended in the meantime.

The City of Stirling have just completed the public advertising of the innocuously titled Scheme Amendment 124 to its Local Planning Scheme No. 3. The Council’s website accurate describe this as:

“Scheme Amendment No.124 is an administrative process as the first step to commence the normalising of the Scarborough Redevelopment Area into the City’s Local Planning Scheme 3.

Proposed transfer of planning control of the Scarborough Redevelopment Area to the City of Stirling.

This scheme amendment also introduces a development contribution area with an associated development contribution plan for the Scarborough Redevelopment area.”

“Council has not made a decision on which policies it would like to adopt for the area. This will be finalised through the normalisation process.”

The redevelopment area extends 1.6km north-south (Contacio Cove to Kay St) and 1km east-west (the foreshore reserve to Hinderwell Street) so might impact more landowners that expected. Sometimes what remains unsaid is the most telling.

Basically this will ensure the current scheme provisions continue at the point of planning authority transfer rather than reverting to those that existed in 2014. This is appropriate and the common practise for the undertaking “normalisation”. While the written documents remain substantially the same, the outcome does change the pathways for development approvals and who makes the final decisions. No more DevelopmentWA and Land Redevelopment Committees, but rather the City, WAPC, Development Assessment Panels and State Development Assessment Unit. What the City choose to do after normalisation has been finalised is another thing. Currently on their website the City states:

“Council has not made a decision on which policies it would like to adopt for the area. This will be finalised through the normalisation process.”

The redevelopment area extends 1.6km north-south (Contacio Cove to Kay St) and 1km east-west (the foreshore reserve to Hinderwell Street) so might impact more landowners that expected. Sometimes what remains unsaid is the most telling.

If you are a current or prospective land owner in this area, how this unfolds in the short-medium should be watched keenly. It may, and I very much hope it will, work well and Scarborough will continue to become the best version of itself and be reinforced as a jewel along our magnificent coast for all to enjoy.

Having spent over 16 years in Redevelopment Areas, and overseen most of the normalisation processes to date, Mecone is uniquely placed and qualified to provide advice as this process progresses.

Contact Mecone on 0417 601 650, or info@mecone.com.au, if want to understand more about normalisation and it might mean for your future options