Summary
Historical Summary
In 1994 the town planning scheme for the area TPS18 was not gazetted before the structure plan presented by the developer was acted on. (presumably as a favour to the developer).
In 1998 an area that was to be used for a 12 bedroom retirement home, low key tourist development and shopping centre was on-sold to other developers. This was converted into a very high density development of 70 units and a backpacker building housing over 800 tourists in peak periods. Coincidentally the town planner at the time left the employ of the shire and went to work for the developer.
In 2000 the original developer now could not build any further because the population controls for the area had been breached due to the level of development by the secondary developers. The original developer then declared the structure plan null and void as it was accepted before TPS18. This suspended all building in the area for a 8 months until an Interim development order (IDO) could be put in place. The interim development order was incorrectly drafted. It should have recommended that a structure plan not be required for the area East of Walcliffe. The words not required should have been "required" which has opened up the area to unlimited development.
The shire and developer spent four years and hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees defining lot limits. Despite an appeal by the developer being rejected by the WAPC the structure plan for the area has been accepted .
There are many subplots in the development history with two local resident organisations being bankrupted through trying to fight issues. An area of land immediately above Gnarabup Beach was rezoned from special conservation area to tourism development by a Minister in 1993 which allowed zoning for a 120 bed lodge to go ahead despite huge shire and resident opposition. The Minister allowed this to go ahead because the shire did not give it enough consideration because the plan was so outrageous. The shire was spilled in 2003 due to many issues related to the development.
The area is now in danger of having four high density tourism developments within a 2km radius housing 2200 tourists in 8m high buildings and no population controls on the new developments. Once the areas are unsold to secondary developers the development can morph further into unbridled development. There are other remaining open areas of land that have no control on them which could also be further developed by the original developer.
The whole development has become an ongoing series of mistakes and blatant misuse of the town planning practices causing massive resident discontent and wasting a lot of energy and time for all people involved. A independent commission of investigation needs to be invoked into the corrupted planning processes used in the development of the Gnarabup area. The town planning laws need to be reviewed and mode more robust to avoid the situation that has occured in the gnarabup area.
The situation of big money developers imposing their will on underfunded shires and residents with no direct input needs to be corrected. The outcomes that the nearby Save Smiths campaign has acheived in revealing deep seated corruption in large developments where there are huge amounts of money to be made need to be protected against.
In 1994 the town planning scheme for the area TPS18 was not gazetted before the structure plan presented by the developer was acted on. (presumably as a favour to the developer).
In 1998 an area that was to be used for a 12 bedroom retirement home, low key tourist development and shopping centre was on-sold to other developers. This was converted into a very high density development of 70 units and a backpacker building housing over 800 tourists in peak periods. Coincidentally the town planner at the time left the employ of the shire and went to work for the developer.
In 2000 the original developer now could not build any further because the population controls for the area had been breached due to the level of development by the secondary developers. The original developer then declared the structure plan null and void as it was accepted before TPS18. This suspended all building in the area for a 8 months until an Interim development order (IDO) could be put in place. The interim development order was incorrectly drafted. It should have recommended that a structure plan not be required for the area East of Walcliffe. The words not required should have been "required" which has opened up the area to unlimited development.
The shire and developer spent four years and hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees defining lot limits. Despite an appeal by the developer being rejected by the WAPC the structure plan for the area has been accepted .
There are many subplots in the development history with two local resident organisations being bankrupted through trying to fight issues. An area of land immediately above Gnarabup Beach was rezoned from special conservation area to tourism development by a Minister in 1993 which allowed zoning for a 120 bed lodge to go ahead despite huge shire and resident opposition. The Minister allowed this to go ahead because the shire did not give it enough consideration because the plan was so outrageous. The shire was spilled in 2003 due to many issues related to the development.
The area is now in danger of having four high density tourism developments within a 2km radius housing 2200 tourists in 8m high buildings and no population controls on the new developments. Once the areas are unsold to secondary developers the development can morph further into unbridled development. There are other remaining open areas of land that have no control on them which could also be further developed by the original developer.
The whole development has become an ongoing series of mistakes and blatant misuse of the town planning practices causing massive resident discontent and wasting a lot of energy and time for all people involved. A independent commission of investigation needs to be invoked into the corrupted planning processes used in the development of the Gnarabup area. The town planning laws need to be reviewed and mode more robust to avoid the situation that has occured in the gnarabup area.
The situation of big money developers imposing their will on underfunded shires and residents with no direct input needs to be corrected. The outcomes that the nearby Save Smiths campaign has acheived in revealing deep seated corruption in large developments where there are huge amounts of money to be made need to be protected against.
