The Beaufort St Local Development Plan LDP is being removed from the City of Stirling Local Planning Scheme 4 (LPS4). Mount Lawley's heritage is at risk and the change will create an urban tunnel

Beaufort Street heritage at risk!

Local Development Plan to be abolished.

Have your say before it’s too late!

This is the Urban Tunnel created by LPS4

After decades of lobbying, the heritage and character of Beaufort Street within the City of Stirling was finally protected by the passage of the Beaufort Street Scheme Amendment in 2019.


The Local Development Plan was passed with the unanimous support of businesses, residents and landowners from Walcott Street to Salisbury Street and won a National Planning Award.


Just five years later, The City of Stirling and the WA Planning Commission now want to rip that up as part of the City’s new Local Planning Scheme No. 4.


Height limits? There won't be any with the State Government’s undemocratic Development Assessment Panels.


The City of Stirling was blunt in their reasoning. Council minutes reveal Beaufort Street is to be classed as an urban corridor like Wanneroo Road, Scarborough Beach Road and Main Street! Beaufort Street could not be more different with 12 State Registered Heritage Places.


We need the community to tell the City it values the Local Development Plan.  Click the image above and send an email directly (noting your name and address), or click here to fill in the city’s survey.


Don’t let Beaufort street become an unsightly tunnel, full of traffic and no open space. 


Act now to save Beaufort.

Beaufort Street is at risk from LPS4 allowing high rise apartments

Why is this happening and what is proposed?


The City is required to review its Local Planning Scheme (LPS) every five years.  The “Report of Review” found that changes to the LPS Guidelines necessitated a new LPS. The City wants to “reset” its local planning framework to “double the potential” of properties fronting urban corridors.


The City is guided by “Perth and Peel 3.5 million” document which intends to dramatically increase the density in activity centres.  Beaufort Street is in the lowest density category (a district centre), yet the City has zoned it R80, enabling 6+ storey developments. R80 is massively out of step (not only with the LDP but the intent of the Perth and Peel document); R40 is more appropriate.


The new planning approach intends to create uniformity through R-codes, rather than local development plans. Local development plans are used to achieve better built form outcomes on small and highly constrained lots; exactly what exists on Beaufort Street.  Several Local Development Plans will be retained in LPS4, but unfortunately not the award winning Beaufort Street plan. This makes no sense.


The City says that the character of Beaufort Street will still be retained, along with the Heritage Register. The truth is that Beaufort Street’s heritage is at risk, and the planning controls contained in the LDP are being removed. Removal of the LDP is likely to achieve worse built form outcomes. 


The R80 zoning intends to allow 6+ storey developments, where previously only 2-3 storey developments were possible. This will allow out of place high-rise developments amongst the low-rise buildings, destroying the sense of place that drives business and tourism to Australia’s premier heritage area.


The City of Stirling is taking us down a path of planning failure, squeezing in maximum density.  The late Linley Lutton, an expert in the effects of built environment on human health at UWA, said there is a ”huge body of evidence of public health risks associated with poorly located, high-density living.  Isolated apartment enclaves, apartments lining highways, crammed unit developments and high-rise developments in low-rise town centres are emerging across the city”.


We need the community to stand up. We need a better Local Planning Scheme, which includes the Beaufort Street Local Development Plan. Beaufort Street planning should not be driven by the threat of JDAP riding roughshod.  The best defence against JDAP is a united community with a sense of community, place and purpose.  Let’s get the LPS right, include the Beaufort Street LDP, and stand up for what is right.


Act now to save Beaufort.


Click here to see the flyer.

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