1 November 2007

In May 2007, the WAPC's Statutory Planning Committee considered two subdivision applications for 50 Victoria Avenue Claremont (Colwyn House).

One application proposed the subdivision of the land between the house and the river to create a single large battleaxe lot. The other application proposed the creation of two battleaxe lots side-by-side. In both applications Colwyn House is retained on its own lot on Victoria Avenue.

The original large site comprises two lots with an area of 2140 m2 (over half an acre).  It is zoned residential and coded R15, meaning that three dwellings may be permissible, on three lots. 

One of the headline priorities of Network City is to ‘make fuller use of urban land’. In general, the WAPC expects to see permissible densities attained, in this case through the conservation of Colwyn House and the construction of two additional dwellings.

The committee gave close attention to heritage issues. Colwyn House is entered on the state register of heritage places on a permanent basis and will be conserved.  The Heritage Council advised the WAPC that there should be adequate space between the house and any new development. For this reason the boundary of the Colwyn House lot was moved towards the river, making the new lot/s smaller than the usual minimum area for R15 and the Colwyn House lot correspondingly larger. 

The Heritage Council also advised that views of the house to and from the Swan River should be protected. Views will be protected during the Claremont council’s development approval process through such controls as height limits, whether or not one or two lots are created. The views of Colwyn House may be no more obstructed by two small houses than by one very large house, and could in fact be better. 

After careful consideration of all of these matters, the WAPC gave conditional approval to both of the subdivision applications.

In the case of the three lot subdivision, the applicant offered to transfer 235 square metres of the site fronting the Swan River to increase the riverside public foreshore land.  This resulted in a significant planning benefit for the community in contributing to the long-standing planning aim of providing continuous public access and use of the Swan River foreshore.

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