City looks to CBD development

Five-storey buildings in the Busselton and Dunsborough CBDs are now permitted under changes to the City of Busselton’s town planning scheme.

An R-AC3 coding will be introduced to land previously zoned as business in the Busselton and Dunsborough CBDs to allow for mixed-use development.

Buildings up to five storeys tall are now permitted. The previous height control sat at three storeys.

City of Busselton planning and development services director Paul Needham said the City wanted to encourage mixed-use apartment-type developments to provide residents with the option of living in the city and town centres.

“That is one of the things we are trying to do and over time with these changes we think you will get that development happening,” he said.

Mr Needham said the changes would allow for the construction of developments that gave people the option to live in the town centres.

“Not everyone wants to live in a suburb-type environment; some people want a more town centre or urban-type lifestyle and at the moment they have got a very limited opportunity to do that,” he said.

“We would like to encourage more people to live in and around the Busselton city centre and Dunsborough town centre and this will encourage that.”

Mr Needham said the City wanted to encourage more developments in both CBDs.

“There is now an incentive for people looking at developing in either major centres; to look at not just doing commercial developments but mixed-use with short-term or residential accommodation or restaurants or taverns,” he said. Changes also include introducing additional use over a limited area of the residential zone to the west of the CBD in Busselton and to the residential zone bordering the Dunsborough CBD to allow for low-impact commercial uses such as offices, medical centres, restaurants and shops.

As part of the changes, the business zone in Dunsborough will also be extended to Clarke Street.