Source : BUSINESS NEWS
Locus Property will build an $80 million apartment project in Sorrento after a state government committee gave the green light.
The Statutory Planning Committee today approved the Subiaco-based developer’s proposal, an 83-unit, seven-storey complex, at a meeting this morning.
The proposed development comprises 83 apartments across seven storeys.
Locus bought the site, on 3 Delos Way, from the Roche family for $17 million in early 2024.
The development had attracted some criticism from the community, particularly over the size of the proposed building being inconsistent with the local structure plan.
Urbis director Tim Dawkins, on behalf of Locus, said the local structure plan for the area was created in the 1990s and had not kept up with the growth.
“Many houses [in the area] are built quarter of a century ago and now… there’s simply no diversity in the area,” he said at the SPC meeting.
Western Australian Planning Commission commissioner Megan Adair was one of the SPC members against the proposal, citing the conflict with the structure plan.
“To divert from it as substantially as we’ve been asked to, to me is a step too far,” she said.
“Hillarys boat harbour has not changed, the area has not changed.”
Despite this, the majority of SPC members voted to approve the application.
“I do take the point this [structure plan] was developed in the late 90s with predominantly large two-storey single houses being the dominant typology through the area,” WAPC chair and SPC member Emma Cole said at the meeting.
“The residential zone under the structure plan does provide for a range of residential densities.
“For me, the critical factor has been that the structure plan is 25 years old and that the City of Joondalup has not sought to make any changes to that in seeking extension, which sits before the department, as confirmed by the planning director today.
“In terms of considering the outcome here, the impact on amenity, the ability for this to be accommodated, I’m speaking in support of the development.”
