Major redevelopment plans for Perth eyesoars

Perth is the commercial, transport and cultural backbone of Western Australia. This city of almost 2 million people is the fourth largest in Australia, but has grown consistently faster than many other cities, outstripping the national average and was ranked by The Economist in 2010 as the eighth ‘most livable city’ in the world, which means we have some of the best living conditions on the planet.

Perth scored just 2 points lower than Vienna in Austria and 2.1 points lower than Vancouver in Canada, which scored 98 from The Economist. Among the most important factors considered was safety, Perth, like other cities in the top ten, has a very low crime rate and is relatively secure in terms of terrorism, with the public’s perceptions of terrorism and its dangers also significantly lower than in other major cities such as New York or London.

Perth’s ranking is also due in large part to the state of the Australian economy as a whole. The country was kept out of the global downturn and has seen little effect from the rampant recession that has engulfed much of the rest of the world, in addition, Perth with strong mining industries located nearby and a well-developed services sector, continues to experience strong growth economically. Recent redevelopment plans announced by the local government to Perth new media are testament to this fact.

When most of the major cities around the world are facing major budget deficits and are looking for ways to save money and cut spending, the City of Perth drew up a list of ten areas in the city’s central business district (CBD) that were in need of improvement or redevelopment and invited architectural firms and urban planning consultants to submit proposals for ways in which they could be improved.

The project proved a major success with six sites around the city now short-listed for redevelopment by the city council and residents of Perth largely in favor of the improvement plans for the sites.

The major projects include, covering the railway east of Barrack Street to improve accessibility to the western foreshore of Swan River, improving Jacob’s Ladder, which is a popular exercise area in the CBD, expand the cultural precinct’s streetscape enhancements so that the Central Institute of Technology is included, turn the old gasworks building into a commercial center for the fashion industry and the combining of the Populate Perth and Green City projects.

Combing the Populate Perth and Green City projects makes sense, as they are similar. Populate Perth intends to redress the problem of a relatively small population living within the core of Perth itself, although the population of Perth and surrounding areas is around 1.7 million, just 13,500 people live in the centre of the city. By moving more people into the city center the local economy will be stimulated and the general vibrancy and diversity of the city will be enhanced, this according to press material released to Perth news media.

Green City, as the name suggests, is a challenge for urban planners and the community at large to come up with ideas for ways in which the city can prepare for a more sustainable future. The local government is basically asking what’s needed to make Perth greener: more community gardens? Roof top gardens? Funding for renewable energy infrastructure? These are some of the questions asked.

While the six projects that have been shortlisted will undoubtedly improve the experience of the CBD for Perth residents, there are many more sites that need work. The East Perth Power Station that has stood vacant for 29 years, the Old Emu Brewery Site who owners wanted to convert into a residential development but went bankrupt and Langley Park, the site where the first airfield in Perth was once located. These sites have become the domain of vandals and fallen victim to graffiti, which is by and large ugly and without any artistic taste.

These sites need to be developed as well and although the local government may have plans for some sites such as these, and although these may be some interest from the private sector, red tape all too often gets in the way, according to Joe Lenzo, the executive director of WA Property Council.

“You need to go through a complicated system and that needs to be reformed. There's also a lot of referral agencies within the Government,” he told Perth news media. He’s calling on the city councils of municipalities throughout Western Australia to put in place development assessment panels that would speedily asses plans for developments over $15 million.

“One of the biggest problems is whenever there is a big project of significance it seems that local councils don't have the expertise to make a decision quickly,” he says.

Other hurdles are with planning permission, which must be obtained and can often take a while with heritage listed sites such as East Perth Power Station and Langley Park, which would make for impressive residential developments, but at the expense of their integrity as historical landmarks.

For many residents of Perth this is extremely important; they want something to be done about Langley Park, which at the moment is a boring piece of open ground amid prime real estate, but not at the expense of its history. Filling the space with buildings and houses, for example, would take away from its history as an airstrip, which dates back to the 1920s. To this day, small aircraft sometimes put down in the field and in 2003 ten aircraft representing each decade of the 20^th century landed at Langley to celebrate a century of powered flight.