Community group Save Perth Hills had a win in the dispute over a Satterley Property Group’s project, after being approved to intervene in the tribunal proceedings.
Community group Save Perth Hills had a win in the dispute over a Satterley Property Group’s project, after being approved to intervene in the tribunal proceedings.
The Nigel Satterley-led developer contested a Western Australian Planning Commission’s decision to refuse its structure plan, which proposes a 1,000-lot housing estate on a 555-hectare site in North Stoneville.
The WAPC delivered its decision in 2020 and the matter was escalated for a review in the State Administrative Tribunal.
Save Perth Hills had been lobbying against the developer’s proposal, voicing concerns over Satterley Property Group’s structure plans including bushfire risks and traffic impacts.
In a decision delivered late last week, SAT deputy president and judge Henry Jackson granted Save Perth Hills and the Shire of Mundaring approval to intervene in the matter.
The community group applied to be an intervener in the tribunal proceedings despite not being a party, saying the application was the only way to be involved due to the lack of third-party appeal rights in Western Australia.
Satterley Property Group opposed Save Perth Hills’ application, claiming the group’s interest was insufficient and that its intervention would lead to delays and costs.
However, judge Jackson found Save Perth Hills’ interest and relationship with the proceedings to be particularly strong.
“In short, it is a long-standing organisation with members who have taken significant and sustained action over many years regarding the strategic planning of North Stoneville and particularly by opposing the structure plan and its predecessor,” he said in his judgment.
“At least at this stage I am satisfied that those actions are and have been motivated by its members' experience of several significant bushfires in the vicinity of the subject land which have threatened their lives and property, and their fear that the development of the subject land will exacerbate the risk of bushfire.”
Judge Jackson said, in his judgment, that Save Perth Hills’ large member base had taken significant and sustained action over many years over the strategic planning of North Stoneville.
According to the judgment, the group has 694 members and was incorporated in 1991.
Judge Jackson also granted the Shire of Mundaring approval to intervene, finding that its interest was stronger than that of the usual case for a local government.
In a statement released today, Save Perth Hills chair Peter Brazier said the group pursued intervention despite enormous odds.
The delivery of the SAT decision was followed by a rally in Mundaring over the weekend, where hundreds of people turned up to protest against the North Stoneville project.
Satterley Property Group’s appeal over the WAPC decision is due to be heard before judge Jackson in a four-week hearing in September.
