UPDATED: NORTH FREMANTLE residents are steeling themselves to fight Fremantle council’s plans to allow 33 feet on the old Matilda Bay Brewery site.
The council’s planning committee ignored 122 submissions and a 70-signature survey objecting to a portion of the site being developed to 33 metres. There were about 25 submissions supporting the heights.
A proposed local planning policy for the site, Taskers and One Steel across the road is due to come before the full council in a fortnight, but the local community association and precinct has organised a community meeting for this week to raise objections.
Association chair Gerry MacGill says the proposal that covers both the brewery and One Steel site across McCabe Street is too big.
“The real issue is about this height at this site—how does it relate to the community, and why do they have to overdo it,” he told the Herald.
Association member Ann Forma is worried about the cumulative effect of having three very large development sites next to each other.
The old Tasker’s site along McCabe Street is already being developed to five storeys and it dominates the skyline when looking across the Swan River from East Fremantle.
• Ann Forma, Gerry MacGill and Griffin and Miranda Grounds say development at the Matilda Bay Brewery site is over the top. Photo by Steve Grant.
Ms Forma says plans to divert traffic from already-busy Stirling Highway onto Thompson Road is a disaster waiting to happen.
That concern was echoed by nearby resident Miranda Grounds, who says developers of Minim Cove, just over the Mosman Park border, were banned from making the road a major thoroughfare.
“It they couldn’t go through there then, why is it that they can go through there now,” she asks.
Professor Grounds isn’t opposed to additional height and welcomes the prospect of funky cafes and restaurants.
Fremantle councillor Bill Massie—who represents Hilton ward—moved for additional heights and disagrees with the complaints: “I can’t think of a better place for it,” he said while discussing development constraints in Fremantle with former mayoral and Liberal candidate Matthew Hanssen over a coffee at Benny’s. “If not there, where?”
Cr Massie said he’d fight hard to make sure the extra heights, which include part of the Tasker site going from 25m to 29m, were revisited.
Mr Hanssen says a number of his friends have substantial land holdings in Fremantle but they’re not prepared to invest further nor develop without significant heights like those proposed for North Fremantle. He says they need about 10 storeys to realise their investments.
The public meeting, which will see a council planner likely to face a fairly hostile crowd, is on Tuesday October 14 at the North Fremantle community hall from 6–7.30pm. The brewery site was purchased by an undisclosed Chinese development company in August for $36m.
CORRECTION: The original posted story claimed the council was considering 42 metre heights, but while the heights got some support at a first planning meeting in July, they were dropped at a subsequent meeting, which we missed. The Herald apologises to its readers and any councillors who got an ear-bashing from terrified voters.
by STEVE GRANT