Main points:
- The City of Cockburn was a finalist in two categories of the 2022 Planning Institute of Australia (PIA) WA Planning Excellence Awards
- It was a finalist in the Climate Change and Resilience category for its Climate Change Strategy
- With DevelopmentWA, it was a joint finalist in the Improving Planning Processes category for the Salt Lane residential project at Shoreline, North Coogee.
The City of Cockburn has been recognised at the 2022 Planning Institute of Australia (PIA) WA Planning Excellence Awards.
The City of Cockburn was a finalist in two categories of the award – in the Climate Change and Resilience category for its ground-breaking Climate Change Strategy, and in the Improving Planning Processes category as a joint finalist with Development WA for the Salt Lane residential project at Shoreline in North Coogee.
Climate Change Strategy
The inaugural climate change strategy made the City the first local government in WA to set a zero waste target, cementing its 22-year role as a leader in climate resilience and sustainability.
The strategy was shaped by 300+ participant responses as part of an extensive community-driven consultation that earned the City and its partner Town Team Movement a prestigious International Association for Public Participation core values award in October 2021.
The City’s inclusion as a finalist in the Climate Change and Resilience category highlights the strategy’s resilience roadmap of bold aspirational targets for 2030.
The targets include corporate targets of net zero emissions and a transition to 100 per cent renewable electricity.
Other objectives include the City working with the Cockburn community and the State Government to achieve net zero community emissions by 2050, in alignment with the WA government’s proposed emissions reduction target.
The City established a Greenhouse Action Fund in 2011 and has since financed projects worth more than $2m, including a 1MW solar power system at Cockburn ARC.
Its Sustainability Policy enables three percent of the total project costs of all new City facilities with budgets exceeding $1m to be set aside for Environmentally Sustainable Design initiatives.
Another recent innovative investment was the installation of a trial wave attenuation reef at C.Y. O’Connor Beach in North Coogee in an effort to reduce the future impacts of coastal erosion in the area.
Consultation for the strategy was achieved largely online following the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic, making it the City’s first paperless community engagement.
The consultation attracted one of the City’s highest ever visitation rates on its Comment on Cockburn online project page, with more than 2,000 visitors in addition to nine digital and Covid-safe face to face workshops.
With limited access to stakeholder groups, communication and engagement methods needed to be tailored to each audience. For example, Instagram was used as a primary channel for sparking interest and raising awareness among young people.
A targeted youth campaign, which included canvassing members of the City’s Children’s Reference Group and the Youth Advisory Collective, resulted in project information reaching more than 5,000 young people. About 40 per cent of workshops were attended by people aged under 25.
Salt Lane
Salt Lane in North Coogee was recognised as a high-quality medium-density residential development that prevents urban sprawl by meeting a growing demand for affordable, compact homes positioned near public transport and sought-after lifestyle locations.
Beginning with a series of design workshops in 2017, Development WA and the City worked collaboratively with key project partners to investigate options for the project before starting the detailed planning and design process.
The City was a key enabler of the project’s ultimate design. It amended its Local Planning Policy to include the new Mixed Residential Typology built form, and approved a Local Development Plan to achieve planning approvals and building permits for the unique proposal at a time when the State had no medium density code in place.
This work has played an important role in the development of the draft Medium Density Code being developed by the Department of Planning, Lands and Heritage, and is expected to be rolled out in its final form in 2023.
Project partners included the Australian Urban Design Research Centre as facilitator, the Office of the Government Architect WA and the Department of Planning, Lands and Heritage along with design consultants, builders and developers.
Its unique ‘demonstration through innovation’ model has inspired the design of adjoining private sector developments at the walkable coastal village.
The development incorporates 31 architecturally-designed sustainable terrace homes and utilises shared access streets featuring soft landscaping with a pedestrian-friendly focus that promotes slow traffic.
Salt Lane will ultimately cater for 171 homes on a 1.61ha land parcel.