Dear NRPG members and interested,

At the recent Kalamunda Council AGM of Electors meeting on Tues 4 Feb, the following Motion was put by Dr Michelle Bunn to a ‘full-house’ of residents and ratepayers, who voted unanimously in favour 

“That the Kalamunda City Council:

(a)     instructs the CEO to immediately take action to adopt WALGA’s Tree Retention Model Local Planning Policy (LPP), with the intent for the LPP to go to Council by 24 June 2025, and

(b)     subsequently ensures the appropriate updates are made to the City’s outdated relevant strategy documents.”

There were other supporting speakers including Vicki Laurie with compelling arguments in favour.

NRPG’s prepared question was covered by this Motion, but also asked of the status of the Significant Tree Register draft which was developed by CESAC in the 2000’s, and offered to provide those draft documents to the City staff. NRPG will provide these in the upcoming NRPG Budget Request for 2024-25.

On another note, we also acknowledge that Rachel Davison put a Motion to reject the Development Application for a McDonalds and car wash at the corner of Canning Rd and Heath Rd in Kalamunda. This Motion was also carried unanimously by the residents/ratepayers. The final decision for this rests with the Metropolitan Outer Development Assessment Panel (MODAP), not the City of Kalamunda, because the value of the development value exceeds $2million, and therefore bypasses the City’s decision-making.

This Council meeting and others can be viewed at: City of Kalamunda – YouTube

We thank Michelle and Rachel for these initiatives and look forward to monitoring the tree protection policy progressing rapidly, given that the WALGA policy has already been adopted by 5 councils and is being considered by 5 others.

Kind regards,
Steve Gates

President, NRPG Bushcarers