A DIRECTIONS hearing in relation to the North Stoneville structure plan 34 is scheduled to take place in the State Administrative Tribunal (SAT) on August 22.

On Wednesday, July 30 the Department of Planning, Lands and Heritage (DPLH) said Satterley Property Group and the Western Australian Planning Commission (WAPC) were required to file planning expert evidence by Wednesday, August 6.

“By August 6, Satterley must file with the SAT and provide other parties with a document that sets out any modifications it proposes be made to the structure plan lodged on June 14, 2024,’’ a spokeswoman said.

“By August 8, the WAPC and Save Perth Hills (SPH) must file with the SAT and give to the other parties a document which: a. identifies any of the applicant’s modifications which it objects to, b. gives brief reasons for each objection and c. without prejudice to its final position in the proceeding, sets out any alternative or additional modifications to the structure plan that it will contend at the hearing that the applicant should be required to make if the SAT does not consider that the structure plan should be refused.

“Satterley, the WAPC, SPH and the Shire of Mundaring must file written opening submissions by Friday, August 15.’’

In February this year SAT, which is reviewing the refusal of North Stoneville SP 34 gave approval for the shire to make submissions and for SPH to intervene, subject to certain conditions.

This week SPH said this would allow them to have five community witnesses and one expert witness at the appeal hearing scheduled for September.

SPH acting chair Debra Bishop said SPH had managed to have one of its expert witnesses Dr Ken Strahan attend pre-appeal legal conferrals in July involving Satterley’s “substituted’’ bushfire management plan and traffic modelling for the proposed North Stoneville development.

She said traffic gridlock risks and potential entrapment of thousands of people during bushfires had been major factors in the community’s three decades of opposition and the “reasons for numerous formal rejections of Satterley’s plans since 2020”.

“To the credit of our SPH community-funded lawyers and a ruling by WA’s SAT, Dr Strahan was given the go-ahead to attend all three bushfire and traffic-related expert conferences,’’ she said.

According to his LinkedIn profile Dr Strahan from Strahan Research is a researcher with 44 years experience in market research, economic consultancy, industry analysis and public policy development.

“He has been involved in bushfire research in Australia for 30 years,’’ his profile said.

“His doctorate on household decision-making in bushfire identified factors that predict evacuation in bushfire and established the concept of evacuation archetypes.

“He has presented papers to international conferences on bushfire research.’’

The proposed development has caused controversy for years.

Concerns raised about North Stoneville reported that former WA fire and emergency chief Wayne Gregson had told a SPH  rally that his experience caused him to be concerned about the risks of another ‘unprecedented’ bushfire catastrophe involving North Stoneville.

In March 2023 Greens MLC Brad Pettitt referred to Amended North Stoneville plan out for public comment in the Legislative Council.

Mr Pettitt asked questions about the dates documents relating to the replacement part 3B of the amended structure plan – the bushfire simulation modelling report, the microsimulation evacuation modelling report and the most recent version of the bushfire management plan – were received by DPLH.

He also asked on what date the initial version of appendix 3B was received by DPLH.

The then leader of the Upper House Sue Ellery answered on behalf of then Planning minister Rita Saffioti saying the  three documents were received on February 21, 2023 and the appendix was received on February 1, 2023.

Some election candidates from both sides of politics were against the proposal and also disagreed with then Environment and Water minister Tanya Plibersek’s environmental approval of the proposed development as reported in Environment minister’s approval ties in habitat offsets.

In North Stoneville bushfire simulation impresses CSIRO it was reported the bushfire simulation modelling carried out for the amended North Stoneville structure plan part 3B had attracted support from the leader of the CSIRO bushfire behaviour and risks team Dr Andrew Sullivan who told Echo News the company behind the bushfire modelling report had gone to great lengths to make it as bullet-proof as they could.