HUNDREDS of Kalamunda residents gathered at Stirk Park on Saturday in a show of strength to oppose the new McDonald’s and car wash development proposal.

The rally comes on the back of a City of Kalamunda annual general meeting of electors where a motion was moved to bring awareness to the City of Kalamunda that there was widespread community dismay and disapproval for the McDonald’s and car wash development, as reported in Heath Road restaurant and car wash opposition grows.

The motion was passed unanimously by the electors at the annual general meeting.

Speakers at the event included Kalamunda North Ward councillor David Modolo, a senior resident living near the proposed development site, Greens Kalamunda candidate Janelle Sewell, and Cancer council obesity prevention manager Ainslie Sartori.

City of Kalamunda Mayor Margaret Thomas was in attendance and spoke about the development assessment panel (DAP), its focus on planning and how the DAP meetings worked.

Kalamunda resident Amanda Newell said from the perspective of the residents opposing the development, the DAP process was problematic as the process afforded a short timeline for residents to research into planning and provide feedback which is then summarised for the assessment panel.

“Noting only planning elements are considered,” she said.

“We feel this process does not allow a true representation of community concern and is all about a planning process.”

Greens candidate for Kalamunda Janelle Sewell said the development had not addressed several key concerns in the submitted plans.

“I think we have got a lot of support out there and the plans aren’t entirely transparent in terms of the liveability of the trees (on the site),” she said.

“The traffic testing that they did wasn’t for Canning Road, it was for Heath, and obviously Canning is the busy one.”

Residents had previously cited traffic congestion concerns and the removal of mature trees as some of the major concerns driving their opposition of the new development.