LP5: Planning Minister Rita Saffioti wants high-rise towers in Subiaco after approving council’s planning scheme

Planning Minister Rita Saffioti wants to see high-rise towers of about 24 storeys built in Subiaco East and around the train station after approving the council’s new planning scheme this week. The LP5 scheme will allow for an extra 8450 dwellings over the next 30 years in the western suburb. The scheme focuses density around the former football oval, former Princess Margaret Hospital site and Subiaco train station. Ms Saffioti said it was up to the council to set height limits in Subiaco but her preference was for more than 20 storeys in activity centres so that infill pressure was removed from residential streets. She said the Subiaco train station area could also sustain similar density but five to eight storeys was more appropriate on Hay Street. “A lot of mixed-use developments will be around Hay Street and Rokeby Road ... we are supporting densification in key streets to support small business,” she said. Ms Saffioti supported the new scheme’s removal of blanket density from more than 1600 lots around Daglish and Shenton Park, allowing just over 200 lots to retain higher densities. The lots are mostly near Shenton Park and Daglish train stations and along Onslow Road. Ms Saffioti said complaints that Subiaco was being subjected to more than its fair share of infill were outdated now that Subiaco East had opened up big development sites. She said the sites were well away from character streets and would not affect existing residents. But Save Subi convenor Genevieve Binnie said there was already a shortage of public open space in the suburb, as well as too much traffic, adding: “Any new development in Subiaco must include sufficient public open space for public health.”