‘So flawed’: Satterley loses bid to build 1000-lot housing estate in Perth bushfire zone

Developer Nigel Satterley’s long-held dream to build a 1001-lot town site in Perth’s hills has been dealt a fatal blow with the State Administrative Tribunal rejecting his eponymous company’s structure plan for the site.

The tribunal delivered a brutal assessment of Satterley Group’s structure plan for the 535-hectare site that was to house up to 2800 people surrounded by thick bush, describing it as flawed.

The decision is a huge win for opponents of the plan, the Save Perth Hills group, which has been fighting urbanisation of the area for nearly four decades.

The tribunal upheld the Western Australian Planning Commission’s 2020 rejection of the North Stoneville structure plan.

It agreed with the WAPC that the risks posed to lives by such a massive influx in population in such a bushfire prone area was unacceptable and did not adhere with state planning policy, which prioritises the preservation of life and the strict management of bushfire impacts in planning.

“Section 2 of SPP 3.7 provides that the preservation of life and the management of bushfire impact are ‘paramount’ and, as we have been at pains to reiterate, SPP 3.7 and the guidelines require the management of bushfire risk, where it cannot be avoided altogether, to an acceptable level,” it said in its decision.

“We find that the structure plan does not demonstrate that that can be done on the site.

“Indeed, in our view the structure plan proceeds on the basis of such basic flaws that it cannot be ‘saved’ by the making of modifications.

“Our finding is that the structure plan put before us and relied upon by Satterley is so flawed as to warrant a refusal to approve it.”

The tribunal, however, flagged that its decision did not mean the area was not suitable for urban development.

“What decisions others make as to the future of the site is a matter for them, informed by the facts and circumstances and, indeed, any future proposed structure plan, of the time,” it said.

Urbanisation of North Stoneville has been ferociously rejected by the surrounding community since it was first floated in 1991.

It has also been rejected by the Shire of Mundaring council, the Department of Fire and Emergency Services, in more than 4000 public submissions, and twice by WA’s highest planning authority since 2020.

The community opposition revolves around the loss of native bushland and fire risk.