SWAN council opposed a proposed Metropolitan Region Scheme  (MRS) amendment to rezone land at Hepburn East from regional open space and rural, water protection to urban.

The amendment applies to approximately 111ha in Cullacabardee and is before the Western Australian Planning Commission (WAPC).

Cr Jennifer Catalano moved that council not endorse the amendment, citing concerns about water protection and environmental impact.

“The lots are located on the Gnangara mound aquifer within priority one public drinking water source area,” she said.

Cr Catalano said she had concerns about hydrology and drainage, referencing flooding issues experienced in other developing suburbs.

“It makes me wonder if the world has gone crazy to suggest building more urban (zoning) over priority one drinking water catchment,” she said.

“The area is priority one for a good reason because good quantity and quality rain water percolates down through the sandy soil layers into the Gnangara aquifer and across to the Bennett Brook.

“Experience in the growth corridor to the east of Whiteman Park has taught us that change in hydrology changes everything.

“It results in future flooding in urban areas, it turns creeks and streams into disgusting drains full of weeds and less water stored in the aquifer.”

She said the mapping indicated threatened ecological communities and wetlands within the amendment area.

“Without water, there is no life and no people,” she said.

“Build for housing today and without water in the future it will be an abandoned, treeless, empty wasteland.

“We cannot leave that dystopian future for those who follow us, therefore, this rezoning should never be approved ever.”

The motion to recommend the WAPC not endorse the amendment was put to
a recorded vote and carried.