At a hearing on Tuesday, WAPC lawyers revealed Satterley had offered to only build 135 lots at the site until road improvements were complete.
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EastLink is an unfunded major road project planned to connect Roe Highway to Northam with major upgrades to Toodyay Road.
It has formed as a crucial element paving the way for the North Stoneville townsite, but according to Main Roads’ evidence during the hearings, it would likely not begin construction until sometime between 2036 and 2041.
Tribunal Judge Henry Jackson said the project would need funding from both the state and federal governments and “a lot of ducks needed to line up”.
McQueen’s concession and the EastLink timeframe means Satterley’s long-held dream at North Stoneville may not happen until the 2040s.
Community opposition revolves around the loss of native bushland and fire risk to new and existing residents.
The WAPC rejected the most recent North Stoneville plan in December 2023 because of the bushfire risk.
McQueen argued that the land had been rezoned urban at the time a bushfire planning policy was in place and that process would have considered fire risks.
He said no structure plan would be approved if external risks needed to be reduced to nothing.
“What you do is mitigate that risk,” he said.
He said the bushfire mitigation Satterley had agreed to – like vegetation clearing, building code measures, water tanks and other infrastructure – brought the risk to the area to an acceptable level.
McQueen also said the North Stoneville site was subject to more than 30 years of planning, including being subject to Shire of Mundaring and state government planning frameworks and the WAPC had not given the history of the site enough weight.
“They are all very significant documents. What’s happening in this review proceeding is curiously the opposite of what normally happens,” he said.
“The respondent’s asking you to do what proponents normally do which is to ignore the planning framework.”
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