‘Someone’s lack of planning is now our emergency’: Warwick residents ‘blindsided’ by $280m triple-skyscraper plan

A $280 million plan by Perth property developer Norm Carey to inject three skyscrapers and more than 1000 apartments into Warwick has drawn the ire of residents and put the local council and state government at odds.

Carey’s revived entity Silkchime wants to construct seven buildings of up to 25 storeys with a combined 1042 apartments between them, commercial space and 1510 car parking bays.

Silkchime wants permission to construct seven buildings of up to 25 storeys with a combined 1042 apartments between them in the heart of Warwick.Credit: Artist impression attached to the submission by Rowe Group.

The Warwick Quarter proposal is earmarked for seven lots spanning more than 16,680 square metres along Ellersdale Avenue and Dugdale Street and north of Warwick Shopping Centre, which Silkchime has owned since the mid-1990s.

But a group of residents claim to have been “blindsided” after discovering via social media that the development had been lodged with the state’s peak planning body, and that they had just weeks to provide feedback.

The application was lodged with the WA Planning Commission’s expedited pathway for significant projects, a move made in the absence of a structure plan for the Warwick precinct.

The area has been zoned “centre” by the City of Joondalup for several years, a classification that necessitates a structure plan to guide development appropriate for the site, which the council agreed was needed in 2014.

But a change to the state’s planning laws the following year allowed proponents to bypass the local government and take proposals to the WAPC in circumstances where it did not have a structure plan.

The structure plan never progressed, and Silkchime is now pursuing the development via the mechanism the new laws created.

The developer claims the proposal, which features seven communal swimming pools, five gyms, a cinema, playgrounds, and two facilities for virtual golf, will benefit the state by accommodating 1715 residents at a time when WA is in the throes of a housing crisis.

But the scale of the development has only exacerbated the concerns of residents, which have since been aired in parliament by Kingsley MP Jessica Stojkovski.

Residents have also questioned the time it took for them to be notified, after minutes surfaced from a pre-lodgement meeting between WAPC chair David Caddy, several panel members, and planners engaged to pursue the project, indicating it had been on the cards for at least 18 months.

Planning Minister John Carey told parliament last week he could not interfere with the process of the state’s independent planners and said the situation was one of the council’s own making, which he reiterated when approached by this masthead.

“This is an example of a lack of local planning by the local government,” he said.

“The City of Joondalup itself identified the need for a structure plan, however, have not developed one.”

But Joondalup deputy mayor Adrian Hill has called on the WAPC to develop a precinct structure plan before approving any such development.

Hill also pointed out that the planning pathway was entirely government-led, and while the WAPC had to have regard to the planning frameworks in place, it was not bound by them.

“In the absence of a precinct structure plan, any development proposal needs to demonstrate that it
would not prejudice the overall development potential of the area and does not conflict with the principles of orderly and proper planning,” he said.

Hill said the council intended to mull a submission to the WAPC on the project in the coming weeks and was encouraging residents to participate.

While the area is not governed by a precinct structure plan, it is understood Silkchime’s proposal significantly exceeds the scale contemplated by the city’s local planning policy.

The Department of Planning has extended the public consultation period by a fortnight ahead of a public forum this weekend in which community members intend to lobby the government not to rubber-stamp the plan under the guise of the housing crisis.

Kingsley and Greenwood Warwick Residents Association Inc spokeswoman Sonia Makoare said residents supported development of the Warwick activity centre and the need for housing diversity, but said better consultation was needed.

“Someone’s lack of planning is now our emergency,” she said.

“Every Perth suburb should be concerned that the WAPC may approve this colossal development to prove a point and, in doing so, Warwick will become the precedent for other high-rise developments in Perth’s suburbs.”

Association spokeswoman Suzanne Thompson said all parties would be “flying blind” without a plan, produced with the community, setting appropriate parameters for development in the area.

But Silkchime claimed devising such a plan could take up to three years — delaying the completion of up to 678 dwellings between now and 2029.

Provided the application is approved later this year, the company wants to begin construction within the next nine months.

Silkchime’s planners at Rowe Group have been contacted for comment.

The entity, which is wholly owned and run by Norm Carey, spent more than a decade in receivership over its ties to the developer’s company Westpoint, which collapsed in 2006 with more than $300 million in investor funds.

Carey was pursued by the Australian Securities Investment Commission for years only for the corporate watchdog to drop the charges two weeks into his 2020 trial.

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