MELVILLE ratepayers will be asked for input on a new masterplan for the traffic-plagued Stock Road and Canning Highway precinct.
Melville city council says it “does not have any pre-determined outcomes for this master planning process” and hopes that asking locals for input will provide “an ownership of the outcomes”.
Staffers say the main problems with the precinct is it’s:
• only used as a through route, with the needs of cars prioritised over public transport, pedestrians and cyclists;
• poorly defined with no sense of place nor demarcation from the rest of the highway;
• dominated by retail and needs more varied uses to “encourage centre users to dwell and connect with their environment”.
Councillors will vote at the next meeting whether to advertise the project.
Meanwhile, Ardross and Applecross residents are “far from excited” about council plans for the Riseley precinct between Canning Highway and Garden City.
A recent community consultation event about the structure plan for the precinct was reportedly met with a lukewarm reception.
There was a good turnout of 200 locals but many still remembered last year’s unpopular (and now cancelled) proposal for 10-storey buildings in the area and were wary of what’s now being proposed. The council wants to turn the area into a “vibrant and sustainable centre that would be a great place to live, work, socialise and shop”.
Ardross resident Bob Peters wrote to the Herald that “most” at the meeting “didn’t seem to have a desire for the precinct to be any more than a low-key area where buildings are kept to no more than three storeys and the traffic and parking situation gets no worse”.
“In general it would seem that most people living within a kilometre of the area are far from excited with the prospect of being in or adjacent to an ‘activity centre’.”
Town planners TPG have been engaged to complete the Riseley structure plan by the end of the year.
“TPG used the word ‘village’ to describe the area,” Mr Peters says.
“That went down like a lead balloon and was strongly rejected by several speakers [saying] ‘it’s not a village, it’s a major road junction’.
“Those present didn’t seem excited about Riseley Centre becoming a village.”
by DAVID BELL