On Thursday, 30 July 2025, the Metro Inner Joint Development Assessment Panel or JDAP, approved a car wash development application for a site at the south-eastern corner of South Terrace and South Street, South Fremantle.
As this image shows, the site is at the epicentre of long settled, residential precincts in Fremantle and South Fremantle, South Street being the border between the two postcodes. Not surprisingly the application drew enormous community opposition on site suitability, heritage, traffic, noise and general amenity grounds.
Here are two images, one showing the site in its present, undeveloped state and the other containing an impression of what has just been approved by JDAP.
By reason of the value of the proposal, the applicant chose to make its application to the JDAP comprised of three State Government appointed members and two Councillors from the City of Fremantle, and thereby avoid leaving the final decision to the Fremantle City Council alone.
The outcome of the application, where the 2 City of Freo members of the JDAP dissented from the majority ruling, invites a timely case study on why developers rush to JDAPs for development approvals and local communities are left languishing on the decision-making sidelines.
The JDAP process that applied to this development application permitted the Fremantle City Council to express its views on a JDAP-headed development application, informed by its own planning officer report. JDAP-headed application made since May 2025, however, no longer pass by the relevant local government council for comment. In this case the City’s planning officer report considered all matters of relevance in the relevant planning documents and recommended approval. When the Council considered that recommendation at its subsequent meeting, having heard from community members as to what they thought about the car wash proposal, the Council resolved to express the view to the JDAP that the car wash be refused.
In her recent Rarely A Dull Moment feature article on how the proposal was assessed when it came before the Fremantle Council recently, Gayle O’Leary set the scene for the all important JDAP hearing.
Gayle explained just what the proposal involves:
“Demolition of the existing building onsite.
Construction of a Motor vehicle wash building consisting of three (3) self closing car wash bays and a plant room.
Modification of the existing crossovers on South Street and South Terrace (cars to enter from South Street and exit via South Terrace.
Installation of four (4) vacuum car bays and three (13) car parking bays.
Installation of a dog wash facility.
Construction of a bin store on the corner of South Street and South Terrace.
Construction of a 2.1m high screen fence along the east side boundary.
Installation of signage.
Installation of landscaping.”
Gayle pointed out that the site itself is zoned “Mixed Use R30” and currently accommodates an Educational Establishment within the building. “Motor Vehicle Wash” is a land use classed as “A” in this zone, meaning that the use typically wouldn’t be approved unless the Council exercised discretion and elected to approve it following public advertising of the proposal.
The Motor Vehicle Wash proposal was advertised to the public during 15 January 2025 to 14 February 2025 via the City’s online MySay page, newspaper notice, letters to owners/occupiers of properties within a 200m of the site, and a sign onsite. Concerned locals were also welcomed to attend a ‘Talk to a Planner’ session at the Fremantle library on 25 February 2025.
During the advertising period, 91 submissions were provided, 81 of which objected, and 10 supported. Objections related to factors including traffic and pedestrian safety, local character given the site falls within the South Fremantle Heritage Area, quality of built form and landscaping, pollution, and existing similar services within the vicinity. Those in support of the proposal praised the landscaping plan and aesthetic improvement to the site, the inclusion of the dog wash facility, usefulness of the land use, and similar matters.
Gayle reports that at the Council meeting, a community member urged Council to reflect on the fact that this is, arguably, underdevelopment of the site, and the use is not one that would be permitted in Residential areas. The “81 submissions are not insubstantial one liners” but are considered, the speaker said, and pointed out in their opinion a car wash would set an undesirable precedent for the area.
Gayle noted this sentiment was echoed by several other local speakers on the night, who described it as a “bizarre proposal” given the area is experiencing a renaissance with young families moving in, and also spoke of car crashes and near misses in the area. Another advised that they live next door to the petrol station and car rental premises further east near Hampton Road, where they regularly witness antisocial activity including drug use early in the morning and fear a repeat of history if this proposal goes through.
Gayle interestingly noted it was pointed out that some leaf blowers can achieve a volume of 80 decibels, which coincidentally is apparently about on par with the vacuums that would be associated with the car wash, and the Council were invited to consider what it might be like to hear a choir of these running in unison. On that, Gayle observed that the applicant had originally proposed to have 24 hour operations but later amended them to be restricted based upon the proximity of residential properties nearby.
Before the Council meeting, on 12 June 2025, the City received amended plans and justification for the proposal in response to comments during advertising and the City’s feedback, encompassing improvements to the built form, colour palette, landscaping, and the Traffic Impact Statement and Operational Management Plan (regarding noise).
The City’s planning officer report, in recommending approval, noted –
“The building has a simple rectangular plan form.
The building is a relatively modest structure which is largely single storey but with a small two storey section at the South Street end.
The roof is a simple hip and gable structure that responds to the largely residential character of South Street and with the character of historic commercial buildings in South Terrace.
The scale of the building is reduced by the articulated verandah element which interprets traditional building form in the area while also providing amenity for building users.
Building materials are generally sympathetic with the painted and rendered historic commercial buildings in the area and the colour scheme is discrete using creamy limestone colours to blend with the use of natural stone in the area.
Signage is also reasonably discrete and limited in size.
The bin store and car vacuum bay wall elements are 1800mm high fence like elements but there are large gaps between these elements to allow carwash activity to activate the street.”
However, as Gayle O’Leary further reported, after considerable deliberation and sympathies expressed on behalf of the 81 objectors, and encouragement of local community members to continue to advocate on behalf of their area as a collective, Council unanimously resolved NOT to support the officer recommendation and instead to advise the JDAP that the City does not support the proposal.
On Thursday last, the issues all came to a bead at the JDAP hearing over a number of hours. Despite the City’s resolution, the large community resistance to the proposal and the opposition of the two Freo Councillors on the JDAP, the three Government appointed JDAP members adopted the Planning officer recommendation, in essence, and approved the car wash.
In reflecting on this decision, one is left wondering why, apart from anything else, why wouldn’t a site like this be the subject of an apartment proposal? A much needed resource in a time of a local and national housing crisis, in an area that Blind Freddy can see from a simple aerial view of the locality is predominantly Residential in character and likely always will be. The answer one supposes is that we can’t actually tell people how they should develop their land, subject to meeting planning requirements, and you can’t force people to be ‘good citizens’.
While the JDAP’s full minutes are yet to be published, listening to what the relevant JDAP members had to say when approving the proposal at the meeting on Thursday, the JDAP’s approval appears to have hinged on these factors:
• Compliance with Planning Frameworks: The proposal met the technical requirements of the planning scheme and zoning for commercial use, which made refusal difficult on statutory grounds. A car wash arguably fitted in this mixed use zone and there is nothing in the City’s planning materials to suggest otherwise.
• Mitigation Measures: The applicant revised operating hours (from 24/7 to 6:30 am–10:30 pm) and committed to acoustic treatments to address noise concerns raised by residents and Council, especially the apartments on the south side.
• Traffic and Access Management: Despite community objections, the panel largely accepted the traffic impact assessment, but ruled that entry to the car wash be only from the left off South Street and South Terrace, and that vehicles can only exit the car wash to the left into either South Street or South Terrace. As a result, right hand entry and exit isn’t permitted from either South Terrace or South Street.
• Built Form and Heritage Compatibility: While the site is near a heritage area, the panel found the design and setbacks acceptable under current guidelines.
From a local community point of view it’s hard to understand how anyone could think a car wash on this site is a compatible future use in a predominantly residential locality like this one in South Freo/Freo. Why on earth would anyone think a car wash is needed in this South Freo locality. Or think for a moment it won’t have consequential traffic flow and noise issues in the immediate residential neighbourhood?
It seems the JDAP out-of-town members didn’t have any appreciation of, or didn’t seem to think it particularly relevant, that vehicles exiting the car wash left into South Terrace are very likely immediately to funnel their vehicles into nearby quiet, narrow local streets – like Gold, Silver and Coral – to get back onto South Street travelling east, to return whence they’ve likely come. All this adding to congestion, safety and noise concerns in the local neighbourhood between the hours of 6.30 am to 10.30 pm 7 days a week, 12 months a year – even if the applicant believes less than 10 vehicles per hour will pass through the car wash.
The JDAP decision is further proof, if proof be needed, that the centrally controlled State planning system in practice ignores the well-based views of local communities and has led to the death of community planning. The experience, wisdom and knowledge of their own localities that elected local government members have historically brought to planning questions like this one in South Fremantle, have long been jettisoned in favour of cutting so called red and green tape to advance so called time, cost and efficiency objectives.
It is plain beyond doubt that we, the citizens who constitute the communities this sort of planning decision-making is meant to serve, count for very little, if anything, under the current WA planning system – despite the insistence of JDAP out-of-town members that they have taken community views into account.
To put it in a nutshell, this JDAP decision is just further confirmation that community planning, as we once knew it, is dead.
It’s time for a major review of WA’s planning system to ensure community planning concerns are recognised as factors that are as important, if not more so, than other more technical considerations in the planning approval process and are paid the attention they deserve.
One wonders though if anyone is listening?
* By Michael Barker, Editor, Fremantle Shipping News
Michael Barker is also a former Chairman of the WA Town Planning Appeals Tribunal, the inaugural President of the WA State Administrative Tribunal and a retired Judge of the Supreme Court of Western Australia and Federal Court of Australia. He is also a resident of South Fremantle.
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