THE old Kim Beazley School site will be redeveloped for housing after a decade sitting idle on Fremantle city council’s books.

At Wednesday’s planning meeting the council gave the thumbs up for LandCorp to build 75 to 80 homes on 2.29 hectares of land bound by Hope Street, Yalgoo Avenue and Nannine and Stevens Streets.

The project has taken 10 years to get off the ground because of community backlash over height, density, parking, loss of trees and even claims the area would become a “future slum”.

Mayor Brad Pettitt says he’s “pleased” to see the development pass “its final hurdle”.

“I think these plans match the long community aspiration to not let this redevelopment site be just big McMansions but to instead get some diversity and affordability into the development,” he says.

“I also like that there are some great innovations such as a community housing site for [Sustainable Housing for Artists and Collectives, a lobby group trying to preserve Freo’s arts culture] and even a competition for Gen-Y housing.”

East ward councillor Dave Coggin says there has been extensive community consultation “that has consistently called for the development to retain the existing open space and community buildings, provide a range of housing options catering for changed community demographics and to retain as many trees as possible”.

“I think the current proposal can achieve all of these objectives. I’m mainly concerned about the trees issue, and for that reason the recommendation includes requirement for more work to be done on retaining as many as possible.”

The school closed in 2005.

by BRENDAN FOSTER