FIVE storeys have been lopped from the Canning Bridge Structure Plan’s draft height limit of 20 storeys.

Residential zones are still capped to between four and eight.

The three-way structure plan between Melville and South Perth councils and the WA planning commission is focussed on “transit-oriented development,” meaning they want a densely built-up precinct serviced by public transport, cycling and walkability.

• Davilak Street is envisaged as a “Main Street piazza”.

Being at the intersection of Canning Hwy, Kwinana Freeway, the Applecross train station and the Swan and Canning Rivers, the precinct is considered ideal as a development hub.

With plans for a third bridge, expanded foreshore area, and a ferry service, planners hope the precinct’s development into a satellite city will boost the local economy. Built around a walkable radius from the bus and rail station the structure plan idea’s been hanging around since at least 2008, but it’s coming to the pointy end as councillors vote to put the plan out for advertising.

• How designers see the high-rise future of Kintail Road, as “an intimate and active public space, where vehicles yield to people”.

Melville urban planning staffer Martin Spencer warns of dire outcomes if the council fails to get behind the plan.

His report says if it doesn’t go through it could lead to crummy developments “at a standard below what the city is trying to achieve” as owners try to get some cash out of their land instead of holding out for the 15-storey gold rush.

Worse still, the report says, it could “encourage planning blight as developers hold their investment until such time as the vision is implemented”.

by DAVID BELL