Rarely a Dull Moment - Draft Local Planning Scheme 5 - A Big Deal

Welcome back to our regular feature, Rarely a Dull Moment where we report on the highlights of City of Fremantle Council and Committee meetings and other activities. We would have titled the feature Never a Dull Moment, but didn’t want to overpromise!

In 2026, we are very pleased to welcome Jenny Archibald to the RADM desk. Jenny will be well known to many Freo folk as a former Mayor, Deputy Mayor and Councillor of the City of Fremantle. Jenny brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to her role as our RADM reporter and we are sure Shipees will look forward to her regular RADM reports.

Welcome readers to our RADM report for the Ordinary Council Meeting of 28 October 2026.

First to Public Question Time with seven members of the public speaking at the meeting. Issues raised included questions regarding the amount of turf at Hilton Park (before and after the oval project) and applicants supporting their short stay application with a 12-month trial period. Others were seeking amendments to proposed zoning and expressing concerns about achieving good urban design with proposed increases in density near the Fremantle train station. And lastly, former Councillor and now President of the Fremantle Society, John Dowson sought to have the item PFC2610-1 ENDORSEMENT FOR ADVERTISING OF DRAFT CITY OF FREMANTLE LOCAL PLANNING SCHEME NO. 5 deferred given the many changes and proposals for the city centre area in particular.

With no petitions and Minutes of the previous meeting to be dealt with, on to Elected Member Communications where Cr Clark wished to note that within the space of only a handful of weeks, Fremantle had hosted the Dockers Grand Final gathering which was attended by an estimated 40,000 people, Freo Design Week – also very well attended – and the Fomo Pre-loved Market along with the Freo Design Week fashion parade. Lots happening in Freo!

Then on to:

The Headline Story – the DRAFT CITY OF FREMANTLE LOCAL PLANNING SCHEME NO. 5.

This has been a massive project for both staff and elected members over a considerable period of time – and hats off to them for the very detailed work done. As summarised by Officers in the report, In early 2026, the WAPC also endorsed the City of Fremantle Local Planning Strategy” (developed in 2025)…The Strategy sets out the intended direction of the new scheme, and incorporates the City Plan: City Centre, endorsed by Council in 2025.

The new scheme will streamline the planning framework, enable increased density in appropriate locations, maintain the City’s strong heritage protections, reinforce the industrial zone’s role in supporting logistics and manufacturing, and provide a foundation for further planning of the City Centre. By aligning the planning … framework with contemporary standards and making it clearer and easier to navigate, the scheme will better support appropriate development. It certainly is a significant moment in time for planning in Fremantle. The last town planning scheme was approved in 2007 and has seen over 80 amendments – quite past its use by date.

But since this item came to the Planning Framework Committee on the 19^thOctober (reported by FSN here https://fremantleshippingnews.com.au/2026/10/22/rarely-a-dull-moment-what-happened-at-the-planning-framework-committee-on-19-october/) one might think that elected members wanted to get this new draft scheme done and dusted asap! However, several members of the public were seeking to have the item deferred so that they could further assess the many amendments that were proposed in this recent phase of the project as well as in the broader context of the proposed scheme.

Since the Officers’ recommendation for the Planning Framework Committee of 19 October was made public, until the Ordinary Council Meeting, it was just two weeks. In this time, a good number of amendments were approved at both the committee (9 amendments) and at last night’s Council meeting (6 amendments). Within these amendments are many changes, particularly focussing on proposed building heights for various areas within the City Centre. This was done in part to encourage increased residential density – something that will be particularly important to support the viability of the inner-city area into the future.

In addition, in the agenda officers reported – “Recently, the Minister for Planning announced upcoming changes to the Residential Design Codes (R-Codes). These changes have not been publicly released and City Officers do not know what they will entail... However, one change that has been publicly flagged and reinforced by officers from the Department of Planning is to set a minimum density of R30 in every urban local government area. This has been incorporated into the draft LPS5 scheme map except for the 3 lots of residential land abutting Cantonment Hill. These lots contain low level housing that are on the State Register of Historic Places, and any potential density increases are likely to impact on the curtilage of the heritage places”.

So, a great deal to consider and it may change even more following clarity on these proposed changes from the State Government.

That said, with several members of the public urging deferral, Cr Mofflin raised the question of public consultation prior to the debate getting well underway. It was acknowledged by the Mayor that while he would support a deferral and would second the motion, he would not move this motion. So, debate commenced … and for 2 hours various comments, amendments and objections were made. It included a second round of changes proposed by Cr Sullivan to building heights/envelopes in the City Centre areas (more below), as well as extending the zoning over the area from Scott Street to Douro Road to R160 – mostly the Sealanes site in South Fremantle.

These latest amendments proposed at the Council meeting were only made public at around midday of the day prior to this meeting. As raised by Cr Graham, his “biggest beef was with the amendments…in that …they are not supported by officers’ comments”.

To provide some sense of the evolving changes in amendments proposed, the three maps below show the variations of the proposed heights for the northern part of the City Centre.

The first is the map proposed by officers in the agenda for the Planning Framework Committee of Monday 19 October 2026– posted on the preceding Wednesday. The colours indicate the proposed heights:

The second map was that approved by the Planning Framework Committee of 19 October 2026 following approval of Cr Sullivan’s amendments.

The third map shows the approved revised heights of specific sites from the Council meeting of 28 October 2026, also following Cr Sullivan’s revised amendment.

There are many very positive changes are proposed in the draft Scheme, with examples such as ensuring O’Conner remains an industrial area, a Special Control Area… within the Swan River floodplain to identify areas impacting and potentially impacted by proximity to the Swan River, targeted medium and high density along transport corridors and in the City Centre, and adjustments …to Centre densities. It expands and solidifies the existing heritage protection framework through legislation, ensures a mix of densities throughout the City, accommodating differing housing typologies, by primarily considering medium to high density residential development on redevelopment sites.

The list is long and a great deal of it will also bring legacy planning zones in line with the current day planning framework.

There was also another amendment by Cr Sullivan to impose ceding of land in the area of Queen Victoria and James Sts“for the purposes of widening the road reserve for improved pedestrian, cycle and vehicle movement, and urban realm upgrades, including deep root planting zones, as required to accommodate high density residential development”. However, given concerns of a “high risk of compensation”raised by Cr Williamson Wong as well as Cr van Dorssennoting that “no officer supported the recommendation…and that it had not gone through due process”, when it came to the vote on the amendment it was lost. However, another road widening was also moved by Cr Sullivan, for McCabe St, and this was unanimously approved with others acknowledging that this had been long been supported by Main Roads WA for some time.

During this time, several councillors noted the desire to provide a more time for public input. The Mayoracknowledged that the document was significantly different, and that deferring wouldn’t be a bad thing. However, it was not to be – when push came to shove, no elected member offered to move the motion to defer. With all amendments dealt with, the final amended motion was put and approved unanimously.

The approved DRAFT CITY OF FREMANTLE LOCAL PLANNING SCHEME NO. 5 will now go on to the Western Australian Planning Commission and the Minister for Planning for consideration, and amendment if required, for the purposes of public advertising. Once this process is completed (expected to take at least 12 months) and approval to advertisehas been given by the Minister, the Chief Executive Officer will invite submissions on the draft Scheme text and map for a period not less than 90 days.

And Everything Else

Well after that, the rest was pretty straightforward. Two items relating to convenience stores – PSC2610-9 ADOPTION OF LOCAL PLANNING POLICY 5.4: CONVENIENCE STORES and PSC2610-10 FINAL RECOMMENDATION ON AMENDMENT 89: CONVENIENCE STORES were approved unanimously. It was likewise for the PSC2610-11 ANNUAL UPDATE OF THE HERITAGE LIST AND LOCAL HERITAGE SURVEY 2026 – and it is now evident that having this data has proved invaluable in protecting many more areas which include heritage properties than previously possible.

Item SGSC2610-8 ADOPTION OF COMMUNITY HEALTH AND WELLBEING (PUBLIC HEALTH) PLAN 2026-2031 was also unanimously approved – with Cr Mofflin noting the links of this plan with the policy and proposed Amendment 89 for Convenience stores, citing impacts of tobacco and vaping and how these are managed. It acknowledged it “demonstrates the commitment of Council” to these issues.

The recommendation from the committee for SGSC2610-9 BOOYEEMBARA PARK NORTH LANDSCAPE CONCEPT PLAN 2026 leading to more work to be done on projects in the Northern Zone, following the feedback from the recent community consultation round. And SGSC2610-10 ADOPTION OF DRAFT WASTE LOCAL LAW 2026 was approved.

The C2610-1 WORKING GROUP INFORMATION REPORT was commented on given its first report of the COASTAL HAZARD RISK MANAGEMENT AND ADAPTION PLAN WORKING GROUP of which Cr Clark is Chair and Cr Sullivan a member. It was noted that the CHRMAP project boundary was extended to include the coastal and estuarine reserves within the Town of Mosman Park local government area where, as Cr Sullivan noted, there were “major issues”.

C2610-2 SAT RECONSIDERATION – EAST STREET, NO. 39/31, FREMANTLE – CHANGE OF USE TO UNHOSTED SHORT TERM RENTAL ACCOMMODATION was finally approved with a 12 monthtrial period following the SAT reconsideration process, with Cr Clark not supporting the item given the number of residents who maintained their opposition to the application.

Finally, a bunch of statutory reports – financial, statement of investments and schedule of payments. That’s it!

Signed off at 20.56pm. Goodnight Freo.

*By Jenny Archibald

~ For earlier RADM reports look here.

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