City of Kwinana backs plan for taller buildings, 900 more homes

City of Kwinana councillors backed the city centre precinct plan at the October 21 council meeting, sending it on to the WA Planning Commission for determination, PerthNow reports.

Why it matters

The plan is meant to guide growth across the Kwinana city centre for the next 20 years, an area the city has called its “premium” commercial activity centre. It replaces the 2019 city centre master plan, following consultation on the replacement that began in 2023. For developers and builders, it is the clearest signal yet on where the southern corridor’s next wave of height and dwelling yield will land outside the Perth CBD. It comes with a caveat built in: the heights and targets councillors backed are not locked in until the state planning body determines the plan.

The numbers

The precinct covers about 31ha and is ringed by four roads: Sulphur Road, Meares Avenue, Challenger Avenue and Gilmore Avenue. The plan proposes turning Chisham Avenue into a main street, with buildings along Robbos Way and Chisham Avenue required to be at least two storeys to build that street frontage; elsewhere in the precinct, heights can go to four to six storeys. There are 105 residential dwellings in the area now. The plan is designed to support more than 900 dwellings, lifting the precinct’s population to more than 2500 people. Retail floor space is slated to grow from 33,000sqm to 50,000sqm, which the city expects to create about 500 new jobs. The plan was advertised for public comment between July and September and drew 39 submissions, raising building heights, parking, landscaping and antisocial behaviour; none of the submissions led to changes being made to the plan.

What’s next

The precinct plan now goes to the WA Planning Commission for approval, so its heights and dwelling targets stay proposed, not final, until the commission determines it. At the meeting, Cr Ivy Penny pressed officers on sustainability, noting the scale of the development and asking about shading carparks and opportunities for on-site energy generation. Cr Erin Sergeant separately asked whether CCTV could help cut litter around fast-food outlets in the precinct, and councillors queried why Kwinana Marketplace, described in the meeting as a central stakeholder, had not lodged a submission; Mayor Peter Feasey said the owner had been involved in earlier stages and had gone a long period without a centre manager. Officers also addressed tree selection near the city’s offices, telling councillors the shot-hole borer pest limits what can be replanted and that native species are preferred where they can survive.

No private developer is named against the Kwinana precinct yet, and any construction timeline depends on the WA Planning Commission’s determination. Kwinana’s push for taller buildings follows the Metro Outer Development Assessment Panel’s approval this month of a seven-storey apartment building in Jindalee over resident opposition, another sign that greater height and density is getting through outside the Perth CBD. The next marker for Kwinana is whether the state commission confirms the heights and dwelling yields the council has backed, and whether Kwinana Marketplace’s owner engages once the plan reaches that stage.