HIGH Wycombe residents have returned to the City of Kalamunda council chambers as their long-running push for a solution to the Sultana Road West industrial-residential interface continues.

High Wycombe resident Michael Ryan presented to council last week about the planning history of Sultana Road West and renewed calls for a transition between industrial operations and neighbouring residential properties.

Mr Ryan focused his deputation on 122 Sultana Road West and a 2015 State Administrative Tribunal decision concerning development in the area.

He said residents had spent years raising concerns about noise, odour and traffic associated with nearby industrial operations.

“These control mechanisms have never been explained to us in plain English despite objections for noise, odour and traffic over the past 10 years and its serious impact on us,” he said.

Mr Ryan also called for landowners in Cell 8 to be notified about its future as a transition zone as planning for the area progresses.

As reported in Sultana Road West residents buffer concerns remain residents previously raised concerns about a 32m separation zone between residential and industrial areas.

At the December 2025 council meeting, residents asked the city for historical planning records and an explanation of how the interface between residential properties and the industrial area was formed.

City development services director Nathan Ritchie said at the time the city would need to review historical information before answering questions about how the separation was established.

“Because it’s a history-based question we’ll need to take that on notice and come back to you with some more detail,” he said.

“We’ll do our best to unearth the records of what we have.”

In January, Mayor Margaret Thomas told Echo News the situation resulted from planning transitions over time rather than a single council decision.

The city said land along Sultana Road West was originally planned and zoned for industrial use before state planning priorities changed following plans for the Forrestfield Airport Link and associated residential development.

From 2014, land north of Sultana Road West which had originally been intended for industrial development began transitioning towards higher-density residential development.

Residential zoning then progressed alongside industrial operations which had already received approvals under earlier planning frameworks.

The resulting interface has prompted years of resident concerns about noise, light, odour and traffic, as well as questions about responsibility for managing the separation between the two land uses.

Under the High Wycombe South (Forrestfield North) residential precinct local structure plan amendment one, approved by the Western Australian Planning Commission (WAPC) in August 2023, Sultana Road West was designated as the transition point between industrial and future residential land uses.

Earlier this year the city said the WAPC chair had requested collaboration on a new structure plan to address the interface, with the city and state engaging on a longer-term planning solution.

Mr Ryan told council last week residents had only discovered the 2015 SAT decision years after it was handed down and said the planning history remained important to their concerns.

“My intention was to have the whole lot in the public domain,” he said.

“It needs to be published.”