Equivalent of nearly 600 Olympic-sized pools of fill to be placed on Baldivis site to help create housing

Nearly 600 Olympic-sized pools worth of fill will be dumped on a Baldivis property to prepare it for future urban development.

The WA Planning Commission’s statutory planning committee approved the $41 million earthworks proposal for the Wellard Farms residential development at lots 45, 456, 457, 465, 466 and 1261 St Albans Road at its September 9 meeting.

The project involves adding 1.47 million cubic metres of fill to a maximum height of 4.5m across 31.3ha — equivalent to about 588 standard Olympic-sized swimming pools.

The site was previously used for agriculture but is now vacant.

The approval is for earthworks only, with separate applications required for any future development.

The City of Rockingham had asked for the decision to be deferred until a district water management strategy was completed and concerns raised by the Department of Water and Environmental Regulation were addressed.

The City of Kwinana did not object but also raised concerns about water management.

The proposal attracted 26 submissions during public advertising, with 96 per cent opposing it.

Concerns included impacts on an adjacent water ski park, increased traffic and potential effects on long-neck turtle habitats.

But a committee report said water management issues had been “satisfactorily addressed” and any issues arising from future urban development were outside the scope of the assessment.

“Overall, the proposal may result in temporary impacts on local amenity from increased traffic, dust, noise and visual effects,” it said.

“As these impacts are temporary, they are capable of being managed through the recommended conditions.”

Those conditions include a new drainage management strategy and a sand and dust management plan.

Project representatives told the committee they wanted titles ready for about the first 120 lots by next April or May and sought to have some conditions removed or changed to speed up the process.

Daniel Martinovich, from CLE Town Planning and Design, said they wanted to “streamline” the process.

“To achieve this, our requested change is aimed to avoid unnecessary content within the management plans, avoid the need for agencies to review documentation unless necessary,” he said.

“We’re targeting commencement before the end of this month and the ability to clear conditions efficiently is critical to this.

“We accept that elements of this needs to be done prior to commencing works and we’ve accepted that and we’re preparing. However, people don’t need to review reports and if updates are irrelevant it just creates time impost on us and this project is time-critical.”

Property group Stockland’s Col Dutton said the plans were about 18 months behind where the group expected them to be two years ago.

WAPC staff opposed removing some of the conditions because of the risks associated with the scale and nature of the earthworks.

“It does seem like probably an intense amount of conditions for some earthworks, however it’s an unusual situation that it’s within an area that needs careful consideration of flood management and drainage,” a staff member said.

Committee deputy chair Ray Haeren said he understood the concerns about timing but said all the agencies involved needed to have “comfort and confidence”.

“I think that what has been put forward is an appropriate balance of trying to be accommodating whilst also ensuring that those other agencies are incorporated,” he said.

A proposal from committee member Sean Morrison to remove a requirement for an earthworks staging plan was defeated 2-4.

Committee member Claire Franklin declared an impartiality interest in the proposal and did not take part in the debate or vote.