A PROMINENT street that dominates the North Fremantle ridge risks becoming an “aesthetic and social lemon” warns local precinct leader Gerry MacGill.

He wants Fremantle council to approve detailed design rules before voting in a heights policy for the McCabe Street development zone.

“Setting height limits or densities might give some starting point, but we can still get an aesthetic and social lemon if the council has not articulated any notion of the sort of community we want to build here,” Mr MacGill warns.

Formerly home to light industry the street sits high on the North Fremantle and Mosman Park border. It is being redeveloped for medium- and high-density housing.

The Tasker building that’s being constructed already dominates the skyline and the precinct wants design rules in place before something like it is replicated. “[The building] obeys all the rules but it looks and sounds more like a Gold Coast resort,” Mr MacGill told councillors at last week’s planning committee, which recommended the policy’s approval (the decision goes to full council next week). “Where is the vision?”

• The Tasker building already dominates the North Fremantle ridge—the local precinct says design rules are needed before it’s replicated.

Precinct member Ann Forma says the area is “in danger of soulless apartment buildings that look like computer mock-ups”.

“We want it to be the best it can be.”

Cr Jenna Ledgerwood from neighbouring Mosman Park town council told the committee the area had undergone massive growth, with thousands of school children being driven in and out daily, and the heights decision should not be rushed. She’d prefer to see the final decision made by the new Riversea council that will oversee the area following amalgamations.

The council needs to do more to “articulate the sort of community we want to build,” Mr MacGill says. “This isn’t just an issue for North Fremantle. Such concern is erupting everywhere, here and in Burt Street (Herald, January 17, 2014).

“Neighbouring communities are shocked at the possible impacts of bulk, scale, overshadowing, traffic and pressure on local amenities.

“With other large sites around Fremantle ripe for development at the high densities being pushed by the state government, we need a new planning model, one that harnesses the community’s passion about the city they live in.”

by BRIAN MITCHELL