DARREN BROWN, former advisor to COLIN BARNETT, has apologised for advising the Government to ignore wide spread local opposition and allow Water Corp to build the water treatment plant at the Mundaring Weir.  Read the too-little, too-late apology at WA Today:
http://www.watoday.com.au/comment/an-apology-to-the-people-of-mundaring-20130528-2n89l.html

The Mundaring Shire council rejected the application to build meeting hall on the grounds that it was too large to be consistent with Local Planning Scheme 4.  The Council cited the proponent didn't perform a traffic management plan, a water quality plan, effluent disposal plan. Further, the Council decreed by unanimous vote for the site to 'become an 'X' prohibited use on the subject site...under LPS4'. 

The proponent bought the 16 acre site anyhow and is taking the issue on appeal to the State Administrative Tribunal. Stay tuned...

An 800 seat church with 211 car bays on a 5 acre site on Coppin Rd is being floated thru Mundaring Council. The main building would be 45 x 30 mtrs and stand 8 mtrs high. It would operate 7 days a week, from 6 am to 8.30 pm. The area is a sleepy, rural life-style living neghbourhood of 1-to-5 acre blocks a half-kilomtre N. of Great Eastern Highway.The proponents don't yet own the property, they are trying get approval before purchase.
 
On Sunday, 3 March , 40 neighbours met with Stonveville-Parkerville Progress Assoc. to voice concerns: 

Traffic: Coppin Rd. is narrow and even if widened, the main entrance to the proposed church is on a blind curve. Access to and from Great Eastern Highway is a dangerous cross-over with no filter lanes. A bus-turning area in the plan means large busses will also be using the site.
Sewage: No on-site sewage system can handle that daily load and dispose the treated effluent on a property that size. Any overflow will end up in Bugle Creek, Jane Book and the Swan River.
Stormwater runnoff: there will be 3 acres of hard surface: carparks, walkways and roofs, that will shed water rapidly. Pollutants from the car park will wash into Bugle Creek and Jane Brook.
Noise: car & bus movement activity, PA systems, hundreds of voices, the 4 large air con units will be operating 14 hours a day at peak;
Light: carpark lights on posts or towers, headlights and facility lighing will intrude on neighbours privacy.
Bushire: there is no plan put forth. LPS 4 shows it as classed in an 'extreme bushfire risk' area. How are 200 cars going to escape on the narrow road while emergency vehicles are trying to get in?
Expansion: another 11 acres adjacent of the site are available, the church could expand at a later date.
Other concerns: There are no admin offices or a kitchen on the plan, despite the size of the buiilding.  Would these be part of a stage 2 expansion? The development is in violation of TPS3 and the approved-but-not-yet-gazetted LPS4. Council is being asked to approve it without amending the planning schemes.

The general consensus is that this is far too large a devlopment for this quiet neighbourhood. It is the equivalent of a medium-sized factory.  The neighbours stressed they hold no ill-feelings toward the church, but feel strongly that it is being proposed in the wrong area, and suggest the proponents look at building in the Mundaring light industrial area instead.
 
Deadline for public submission is Tuesday March 5, 4 pm.at the Shire offices.

A Safety Barrier built by Main Roads on Great Eastern Highway at Mann St. in Mundaring has created an unintentional hazard: a blind spot for traffic turning right onto Great Eastern Highway.  
 
The fence was designed to force pedestrians to cross the busy highway in marked crossings, but from the angle of view from cars waiting at the Mann St. intersection, the vertical bars of the safety fence line up to become opaque.  This makes it difficult for drivers trying to cross east-bound lanes to see if cars are coming, and to determine which lane they are in to judge if it is safe to start the turn.

The upgrade cost $770,000.  Save Perth Hills suggests this poorly designed feature be fixed before there is a major accident.

A new development of 55, ½ acre blocks in a suburban-style layout in Parkerville is now out for public comment.  Stoneville-Parkerville Progress Assoc. held a public information meeting on Jan 15. 50 residents attended. The development is owned by the Parkerville Children’s Home. It's titled: LOT 1854 BEACON ROAD & LOT 1915 ROLAND ROAD, PARKERVILLE LOCAL SUBDIVSION & INFRASTRUCTURE PLAN, or LSIP 368.


Concerns expressed were: 

Inadequate traffic access to the developments on existing narrow roads.

Excess stormwater runoff from hard surfaces (roads, roofs, driveways, verandas), temporarily stored in basins, then overflowing through open street culverts.

Sewage from septic systems on steep slopes running off with stormwater.

Elimination of native bush including several 150+ year old trees that are Black Cockatoo nesting sites (on ½ acre blocks owners are allowed to completely clear all vegetation).

Introduction of a relatively dense neighborhood into a bushfire-prone area.

Also troubling is that the development was put out for public comment Dec 19 thru Jan 28, during the holiday season when no one is watching, many people are on annual leave, and many involved offices—Shire, developer, proponent—are closed. The public notice signs were placed at the far ends of the property hidden from the main corner where they might be noticed. The LSIP was buried 4 pages back in the Shire website and difficult to search. It makes one wonder if this was all deliberate, to sneak this project thru with no one noticing.

Public must submit their comments by 4 pm Jan 28 to the Shire of Mundaring.

The Perth Hills Planning Bill was defeated in the Upper House of the West Australian Parliament by a vote of 4 for and 28 against.  You can read the debate at:

  http://www.parliament.wa.gov.au/Hansard/hansard.nsf/0/1b3b2000e5a8c98648257ac90022f807/$FILE/C38%20S1%2020121129%20p9046a-9046a.pdf

Here's who voted for the Bill: Hon Robin Chapple, Hon Lynn MacLaren, Hon Giz Watson, Hon Alison Xamon; all WA Greens. 

Here's who voted against the Bill: Hon Liz Behjat, Hon Kate Doust, Hon Nigel Hallett, Hon Simon
O’Brien, Hon Matt Benson-Lidholm, Hon Wendy Duncan, Hon Alyssa Hayden, Hon Ljiljanna
Ravlich, Hon Helen Bullock, Hon Phil Edman, Hon Col Holt, Hon Linda Savage, Hon Jim Chown, Hon Brian Ellis, Hon Robyn McSweeney, Hon Sally Talbot, Hon Peter Collier, Hon Jon Ford, Hon Michael Mischin, Hon Ken Travers,
Hon Mia Davies, Hon Philip Gardiner, Hon Norman Moore, Hon Max Trenorden, Hon Ed Dermer, Hon Nick Goiran Hon Helen Morton, Hon Ken Baston

You, too, have an opportunity to vote at the State elections next March, on the people who voted against the Bill.


 




  

The Perth Hills Planning Bill will be debated in the upper house of State Parliment this Thursday.  It is a Personal Members Bill introduced by Alison Xamon, MLC East Metro.

The Bill would create a Perth Hills Region, and appoint a committee of experts who would apply a set of principles designed to protect the Hills from excessive quarrying, logging, mining, and urban sprawl.

Why any Member would vote against such a bill is illogical.  They might just as well vote against protecting Rotto, the beaches and the Swan River.

Save Perth Hills hopes the Bill will procede from the upper house and through the lower house and into law before the next election in March.

Contact your local member and ask them to vote for it.

EMRC is at it again. This time they've not only moved the goal posts, they've changed stadiums. Two months after the public submission period ended for the Environmental Report on the location for the proposed Resource Recovery Facility, they have announced (in the minutes of their Oct. 3 Red Hill Community Liason Meeting), that they have an option to buy Boral's old quarry a kilometre from the original site with the intention to relocate the site there. They intend to do this without revising the Environmental Report, irregardless that it is different ground, different geology, different wind patterns, different flora and fauna, different neighbours, and requires a new truck entrance/exit onto already hazardous Toodyay Rd. And under a technicality (Section 45C) the Environment Minister can do this with a signature.

If this upsets you, you can contact the EPA:  'submissions@epa.wa.gov.au', the Environment Minister Bill Marmion, and your local member,

  The Pakervile Tavern is back: restored, reopened and rejuvinated, once again under the management of the Manolas family, who've owned it since the '70's.  Serving an array of cold beers and ciders on tap, a wine list and superb menu.  Dine or enjoy a coldie inside or out in the gardens.
    Stop by for a visit and enjoy this colourful piece of Hills history. 
The menu and events schedule:  http://parkervilletavern.com.au/

Trek the Trails participants enjoyed beautiful weather this year.  Save Perth Hills attended the fair at the end of the trail and distributed free Save Perth's Hills car stickers.  If you received one, please make sure it finds it's way onto the rear window of your car.  Consider it a rolling petition. And if you feel strongy about preserving the Hills, contact your local Member of Parliament