THE Metro Outer Development Assessment Panel (MODAP) on Wednesday approved the development of  two lots in Hazelmere for storage and transport depot purposes despite fierce community opposition.

A petition with more than 1200 signatures opposing the industrial development of the two adjacent lots, 38 and 1101, raised concerns about worsening traffic.

“The routing of heavy trucks through our urban neighbourhoods poses a threat to our amenity, safety, quality of life, and local traffic conditions,” the petition said.

“The increased traffic from heavy-duty vehicles would lead to noise pollution and increased wear and tear on our roads.

“More concerning is the potential safety hazards this could pose to pedestrians, particularly children and the elderly, who are most at risk from increased vehicular movement.”

Hazelmere resident Randal Swick, who lived near the proposed development and began the petition, said the application failed on planning grounds as the traffic impact assessment relied on outdated information that didn’t account for the worsening traffic.

“The data comes from 2021,” he said.

“Since then, there’s been changes in the traffic in Bushmead, Guildford, Rosehill Waters and Military Road’s clogging has just become more serious.”

City of Swan chief executive officer Stephen Cain said the city was aware of the traffic concerns of Hazelmere residents.

“The city is aware of the concerns of Hazelmere residents with respect to the truck traffic entailed by the proposed development of lot 38,” he said.

“The city’s assessment will recommend certain upgrades to Stirling Crescent and road intersections to accommodate the proposed additional traffic.

“While the landowners have cleared across several lots, the vegetation removal did not require approval under the city’s local planning scheme (LPS) 17.”

Hazelmere trees cleared reported a dense collection of trees populating 4.5ha of land on Stirling Crescent were reduced to splintered heaps.

This scene sat across from Hazelmere’s Trillion Trees facility dedicated to ecological conservation and restoration.

“Those trees were planted by Western Power in order to satisfy community concerns in regard to the substation that they built on the eastern side of that land,” Mr Swick said.

“Given that there was an agreement to plant those trees to shield everybody off the eyesore, I can’t understand how they had legal authority to remove them.

“At least not without an alternative, an agreement by the relevant authority to have an alternative shield put in place.”

Mr Cain said he could confirm the trees were originally a buffer for Western Power but was not part of the approval process for their terminal.

“The trees on lot 38 were planted for the purposes of a buffer to Western Power infrastructure but this was not a requirement of the planning approval issued by the WA Planning Commission,” he said.

The applicant Rise Urban did note that all submissions received during their 14-day public consultation period were objections.

Western Power also advised on January 9 that they did not support the proposal as it didn’t comply with the registered standard easement conditions under the energy operators act.

“The proposed land use activities to these sites intensifies the existing service of the transmission corridor from the Guildford Terminal and Hazelmere substation, providing no certainty to the level of protection to maintain safety and unconstrained access, limiting the impact of development to Western Power network assets,” they said.

“In the absence of development plans showing the locations of the proposed storage units, ensuring the clearance of the easement and safety areas cannot be determined. In addition, storage units on the subject sites would obstruct access to Western Power’s transmission lines for maintenance and necessary works to occur.”

The subject land is zoned industrial under the metropolitan region scheme  and general industrial with a restricted use notation under the City of Swan’s LPS17.