Sky's Vic Park Newsletter #14: the Urban Forest, climate action, cats, and the skate bowl
More on cats; the Urban Forest; Archer/Mint; climate action policies; and Rutland Ave.
Kaya!
I hope that you’re well.
There is, as usual, a fair bit in this newsletter, including:
Behind the scenes at council: concept forums and cats!
Some points of interest coming up in the November meeting, including draft policies to support our Urban Forest; upgrades for the area around Burswood Station and Archer/Mint; and temporary parking changes to facilitate the Metronet project.
A summary of key decisions made during the October meeting, including saving the Vic Park skate bowl; policies related to climate action and commemorative recognition; and updates on the Rutland Avenue Principal Shared Path.
There are a few things I’ve skipped over, like the approval of the draft Albany Highway Precinct Plan and the Sustainable Development Local Planning Policy for comment, and the approval of members for working groups, which I’ll give updates on once more details are available.
Get involved
As always, there are plenty of opportunities for you to get involved around the Town!
Are you a young person (age 12 to 25) living, working, studying, volunteering and/or using services in the Town of Victoria Park? Or a parent or guardian? Take this survey to help the Town develop the Youth Action Plan!
Want to develop your bicycle skills? Vic Park Pedalpalooza is a wonderful free series of family-friendly workshops!
Looking for some chill Pride events? We gotcha.
Behind the scenes
Concept Forums are important spaces for council members to consider information and policy options. These are workshops where we can discuss issues in more detail and give staff feedback. Sometimes staff bring issues to a concept forum as part of the process of developing policy, but council members can also request a Concept Forum. These can be presented by staff, elected members, or both. For example, we recently had a presentation by Cr Miles and Cr Devereux, alongside staff and external presenters, to discuss the best approach to bulk hard waste collections.
At the moment I have a request in for a Concept Forum on managing the environmental impact of cats. The State government has put limits on what local councils can do when it comes to this, with some policies being rejected by WA’s Joint Standing Committee on Delegated Legislation. However, some councils have brought in policies to control cats in particular areas, as well as taking other steps like providing rebates for catios. Our staff will run us through different options, provide us with evaluations, and take feedback.
After the Concept Forum, our staff usually put together a policy recommendation that will come to council and sometimes also go out for public comment.
Coming up in November
There are a few particularly interesting items on the agenda for November’s meeting. We’ll have the Agenda Briefing Forum on 5th November (a chance to ask questions about these items), and then make decisions at the Ordinary Council Meeting on 19th November.
12.1 Consent to advertise draft LPP39 Tree Retention, LPP44 Significant Trees and LPP45 Tree Planting for Non-Residential Development
This item (at page 16 on) presents the draft policies for tree retention, for managing significant trees, and for tree-planting on non-residential developments. Tree canopy plays an important role in managing the impacts of climate change and providing habitat for local animals. However, we continue to lose trees on private land. This set of policies aim to support our Urban Forest Strategy, particularly on private land.
If you want to ask questions or give feedback on the drafts, you can come to the ABF on Tuesday night, or the Ordinary Council Meeting on 19th November. Once approved by council, the drafts will also go out for public comment before being adopted as policy.
13.1 TVP/24/19 Burswood Station East Stage 1A Stiles Griffiths park upgrade Tender report
This report (page 21 on) makes a recommendation for awarding the construction contract, as well as requesting an increased project budget. Upgrading this area is intended to support local businesses, expand our Urban Forest, and improve safety in the area.
13.2 TVP/24/16 Archer Mint Streetscape and blackspot funded intersections tender report
This (page 37 on) presents a recommendation for awarding the construction contract for the Archer streetscape section between Planet St to Mars St and Black spots intersections, and requests a budget increase for the project. These improvements are aimed at improving safety (including for active travel around Victoria Park Primary School), and connecting the recently finished Archer streetscape works and the protected bike lane.
14.3 Temporary Parking Changes - Metronet and Archer Mint
This item notes that, “As part of the Metronet Level Crossing Removal (LXR) project works; the State Government’s contractor needs to close a portion of Oats Street between Jan-Mar 2025” (see page 54). Staff have made recommendations about how to manage parking demand during this time to support local businesses.
October Decisions
On October 22nd we had a Special Council Meeting (or watch the video recording here) to award the tender for the Mcallum Park Active Area. Most of council only learned about the petition to save the Vic Park Bowl on the day of the meeting, but we worked to amend the initial motion so that the existing bowl will be retained.
On October 15th we had the Ordinary Council Meeting. Here’s a summary of a few of the items I found particularly notable (although as always, I recommend that you look through the full minutes here or video recording yourself).
During public question time, Eugenie Stockmann asked several questions about the Rutland Ave section of the PSP (see page 12 or 18 min in). Replies noted that we are still awaiting the final details needed to enter the ‘advocacy sprint’ for state funding for the version that retains both lanes of Rutland Ave; and that the Town is currently reviewing a number of options for traffic calming on Rutland Ave.
11.3 September 2024 Policy Review
As I noted in the last newsletter, there were a few policies in September’s meeting relevant to climate action. Several important policies in this review passed without debate, including the draft Procurement Policy, the Waste Removal and Recycling Policy, and the Communication and Engagement Policy.
Cr Hamer introduced two amendments to the Parking Permits Policy. The first of these requires residents in areas with changed parking rules to be notified in writing about transitional permits, and the second requires a report to council about applications for transitional and support worker permits (see pages 31 and 32). These were passed unanimously.
Cr Devereux introduced an amendment to the Commemorative Recognition Policy, aiming to ensure that the policy that this is in line with the Town’s Reconciliation Action Plan (page 32). After some discussion, this policy was unanimously deferred to a future Concept Forum.
I introduced an amendment to the Investment Policy to allow more flexibility in which banks we invest in and our level of returns, in order to reduce how much money from the Town goes into banks funding fossil fuel projects (see page 34 or 1hr54min). This vote was tied with me, Cr Peter Devereux, Cr Peter Melrosa and Cr Lindsay Miles voting for, and Mayor Karen Vernon, Cr Claire Anderson, Cr Jesse Hamer and Deputy Mayor Bronwyn Ife voting against. As Presiding member, Mayor Karen Vernon used her casting vote to vote against the amendment and it did not pass.
Item 12.6 Development Application 32 Oswald Street, Victoria Park
This application is for Victoria Park Christian School to include additional car parking and to increase the approved maximum student capacity of the school from 150 to 250 students (pages 74 - 94). This was passed unanimously.
Item 13.1: Rutland Avenue - progress of advocacy for funding
As the officer reports (page 106 on, and discussed at 2hr 38min), progress on getting the $10million+ in State funding required to build the two-way version of the Rutland Ave PSP has been limited.
During discussion, Cr Devereux explored the possibility of implementing immediate traffic calming on Rutland Ave in order to protect cyclists on the route. Mayor Vernon noted that this would require a release of additional funds from the budget, which we do not currently have a figure for.
Mayor Vernon moved two amendments, both carried unanimously. The first was to require a report on advocacy for funding the PSP from the CEO no later than April 2025. The second requests a report on traffic calming on Rutland Ave no later than December 2024.
Inspiration from elsewhere
The world’s most feminist city: how Umeå in Sweden became an idyll for women
We are all connected
As always, I encourage everyone to extend their care beyond the boundaries of our local community. Even though I spend most of my time within Vic Park these days, I’m aware that we are intricately connected to the world beyond us, including through our weapons exports and our fossil fuel exports. While this can feel overwhelming at times, it’s important that we remember, as Rebecca Giggs so beautifully argues in Fathoms, that these long chains of connection mean that “these small actions that we can take that cumulatively have a really big effect”.
So push your political representatives (including me) to do better; donate if you can; and keep working for a better world in whatever ways you can.
That's all folks!
Thanks for reading! As always, I encourage you to get in touch if there's anything you want to ask about or discuss.
best wishes,
sky.
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