There are two key designated areas of industry in the Shire of Serpentine Jarrahdale – the West Mundijong Industrial Area and the Cardup Business Park (CBP).
But last month the SJ council decided to backpedal from the hemmed-in triangular patch of land in Cardup which it zoned industrial over a decade ago.
The CBP is sandwiched between the creep of suburbia from the north (Byford) and the south (Whitby) and bound by the South Western Highway and Soldiers Rd.
The Bush Forever Site which runs along the southern border of the CBP has further impeded growth of the area.
“This constrained location limits the scale of land that is available to accommodate industrial development and provide for a range of industries and future growth. The long-term potential of the Cardup Business Park to accommodate significant further industrial development is limited and considered to be largely unavailable now,” council officers said.
They then went on to say that the CBP is now at odds with the council’s own Local Planning Strategy which aims to ensure that “more intensive industrial uses” of land do not compete with residents’ enjoyment of their own home and neighbourhood.
“The subject site is surrounded by existing urban areas, and reflects an example of the kind of incompatibility now striving to be avoided,” council officers said.
The shire pointed out that conflicting uses of the land had already created tension between businesses in the Cardup Business Park and their neighbours, including in the recent cases of Permacast and Wormall Civil.
With the state government trying to accommodate up to 3.5 million people in the Perth and Peel regions by 2050, councils are being encouraged to limit urban sprawl by concentrating on ‘infill development’ – capitalising on vacant and formerly industrial land.
At its September 18 meeting, council voted unanimously to give conditional support to the rezoning of the CBP land to ‘urban’ by the Western Australian Planning Commission (WAPC).
The condition being that the WAPC leave lot 41 – occupied by Wormall Civil Pty Ltd – out of it.
In fact, council has asked that a further 150 to 200 metres of land to the south of lot 41 be excluded from the rezoning to safeguard Wormall’s possible future expansion.
With this latest decision, the shire appears to have now thrown all its eggs in one basket by solely promoting the West Mundijong Industrial Area, which it sees as strategically aligned with upcoming state infrastructure projects like the Tonkin Highway extension, Westport and its landside logistics base, and the Mundijong Freight Rail Alignment.
“As demand for industrial land within the shire increases, the expansion of the West Mundijong Industrial Area further west provides a more logical and strategic opportunity to accommodate industrial growth,” council officers said.
