Thank you Councillors.

Over the past few weeks we have been putting the finishing touches to our website, setting up our future strategies, and familiarizing ourselves with the process and phases the development application will follow in various scenarios. We thank you for your patience but now we need your input so please take the time to read on.

On 14th April the application was considered by the City of Joondalup’s Policy Committee, the first stage of the approval process. The Local Development Plan (LDP) was put forward with a recommendation by the City’s officers to approve the application. In summary that recommendation was to:

1) Support the draft LDP

2) Refer the draft LDP to the Western Australian Planning Commission (WAPC) for consideration

3) Following WAPC approval, authorize the Council to approve the LDP

4) If not approved by WAPC, return to Council for further consideration.

This motion was defeated by simple majority 3/4 as follows:

In favour of approval

Cr Mayor Jacob, Cr Hamilton-Prime, Cr Pizzey

Not in favour of approval

Cr Kingston, Cr Chester, Cr Hutton, Cr Raftis.

An alternate recommendation was moved by Cr Kingston and seconded by Cr Chester that Council:

1) Does not support the draft Joondalup Resort Local Development Plan as provided in Attachment 2 to the Report;

2) Notes that the proposed future developments scale, intensity and significance is inconsistent with the Local Planning Development process

The Alternate Motion was put and CARRIED (4/3) as follows:

In favour of the Alternate Motion:

Cr Kingston, Cr Chester, Cr Hutton and Cr Raftis.

Against the Alternate Motion:

Cr Mayor Jacob, Cr Hamilton-Prime and Cr Pizzey.

We are grateful to the City Councilors and encouraged to learn that, notwithstanding the Officer’s recommendation, the Committee voted 4 to 3 against the Local Development Plan application and consequently, the Councilor’s recommendation is that it should not be considered in its current form.

The application will now go to the Briefing Session of the full Council on Tuesday 13th May and thereafter, the Council Meeting on 27th May.

The purpose of the Briefing Session is to provide the opportunity for Elected Members to be equally informed and seek additional information on matters prior to the presentation of such matters to the next ordinary meeting of Council for formal consideration and decision. There will be no debate but members of the public may submit written or verbal questions and make short verbal statements.

Members of the public may also make deputations at Briefing sessions. Deputations consist of 5 members 3 of whom may speak for a total of no more than 15 minutes. The time for deputations is usually no more than 1 hour.

On the 27th May a formal decision will be made by the full Council as to whether the Local Development plan be approved or not. At this meeting questions may be submitted in writing and verbally by the public, but there will be no deputations.

Your action group intends to make a deputation at the Briefing Session and prepare questions for submission. We would like to know if any residents intend submitting questions of their own, either in writing or verbally. As time is limited for verbal questions we seek to avoid duplications and would like to effectively coordinate our efforts. Please contact us as soon as possible should you have questions.

We are in the process of organizing a visit to Connolly of as many Councilors as possible, so that they appreciate the impact this proposal will have on our suburb. This will be an opportunity to seek wider publicity of our protest and we may be seeking your support. If you know or have influence with any Councillor please let us know.

We also want to fill the Council chamber when this matter is debated on the evening of 27th May. Please keep this date clear in your diaries, your support on this day is fundamental.

If you want more details of the Policy Committee meeting agenda and decision, here is a link https://www.joondalup.wa.gov.au/city-and-council/council-and-committee-meetings/committee-minutes to the minutes of the Policy Committee meeting, It is of particular interest as it contains transcripts of all the submissions made during the recent public consultation. (Appendix 8 Pages 53-239)

Finally, if you are aware of friends or neighbours who have not yet subscribed for our updates please encourage them to email us at hello@connollysos.com

ConnollySOS
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