The Perth and Peel regions are expected to accommodate an additional 1.5 million people by 2050, bringing the area’s total population to more than 3.5 million.
Whether that population growth is reached sooner – or later – it is incumbent on the present generation to lay the foundations for that growth to occur without further compromising our environment, both for its intrinsic value and because of the value it has to the health and wellbeing of the community.
The Western Australian Planning Commission’s (WAPC) Perth and Peel @ 3.5 Million report and four draft planning frameworks for the Central, North-West, North-East and South Metropolitan Peel sub-regions, which were released in April 2015, outline a vision for future land uses and a more liveable, prosperous, connected, sustainable and collaborative community. These frameworks will be finalised, after the consultation period, as Subregional Structure Plans.
Concurrently, the Western Australian Government is engaged with the Commonwealth Government on a Strategic Assessment of the Perth and Peel regions. That assessment will consider the environmental implications of Perth and Peel’s future development on Matters of National Environmental Significance (MNES).
The State is also assessing the environmental impact of future development on a suite of State environmental values, additional to the MNES.
The Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) will be providing strategic advice to the Minister for Environment on the draft planning frameworks and the broader implications for the environment that arise from a substantial increase in the population of the regions, noting the cumulative impacts to date.
This advice – the EPA’s interim strategic advice – is intended to influence the finalisation of the Sub-regional Structure Plans and the overarching Strategic Conservation Plan which will address both the Commonwealth and State environmental impact assessments.
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