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Ford Motor Factory
The Ford Motor Company building was built in 1929 on Stirling Highway North Fremantle, designed by the Ford Company, with Oldham Boas and Ednie Brown. In 1988, it became the headquarters of the Matilda Bay Brewing Company. (See the Heritage Council page for more details.) It is proposed that a very large accommodation be erected on the site.
Fremantle Society posts:
20 March 2023: Ford Motor Factory Safe for Now
13 March 2023: Ford Motor Factory High Rise - Biggest Ever in Fremantle's History
November 2022: Serious Corruption of the Rule of Law
November 2022: Former Ford Motor Company Site 24 Storey Development North Fremantle: Is JDAP Set to Ignore Expert Advice AGAIN?
November 2022: Serious Corruption of the Rule of Law
On Tuesday 15 November 2022, JDAP met to decide the fate of the Chinese 3 Oceans application for 24 storeys at the former Ford Motor Company site in North Fremantle, also known as former Matilda Bay Brewery site.
The past record of JDAP (Joint Development Assessment Panel) in approving almost any development put in front of them whatever the expert evidence detailed against the proposal was well in evidence yet again.
Fremantle Council put to JDAP a recommendation for refusal based on serious concerns from councillors (except Cr Sullivan), the Fremantle Council planning staff, the Fremantle Council heritage officers, the Design Advisory Committee of Fremantle Council, and advice from the Heritage Council.
The community made strong and expert submissions on the day, including Fremantle Society committee member Ken Adam along with Tony Blackwell and Ingrid Maher. Cr Bryn Jones, who is a member of JDAP and chair of Council's planning department, moved the refusal. He was seconded by Cr Sullivan, the second councillor on the panel, who then used the seconding to talk FOR the proposal!
Cr Sullivan, as a member of JDAP does not have to mirror the council view, but as one presenter stated, there needs to be action against Cr Sullivan for the damage he continues to wreak to orderly planning and sensible advocacy throughout Fremantle.
One member of JDAP basically supported the whole proposal and said height didn’t matter, it just needed tweaking. He foreshadowed a deferral.
Conflicts of Interest
The chair, Rachel Chapman, (after effectively declaring numerous conflicts of interest at the start of the meeting) more or less went along with that. She then proposed the deferral.
The final outcome - a 120-day deferral and car parking was not a consideration! And, apparently height was not recorded as a consideration.
Whatever body rules over us, it should be governed by rules and law.
JDAP rules over the whole community for any large projects.
The supposed intent of JDAP was to get better outcomes through a process using experts to make quality decisions based on expert advice.
That is clearly not happening. As with the Spicer site Andrew Forrest hotel, expert advice was left on the floor, and erroneous flawed arguments were elevated to righteous reckoning.
There has been a massive corruption of the process since JDAP was set up, and there is little evidence that the rule of law is being followed by them.
The Fremantle Society has been in talks with similar groups in other areas, and all have suffered the same corrupted outcomes.
The former Chair of the Western Australian Planning Commission Jeremy Dawkins is so concerned, he is flying here from his home in Sydney, not just to attend our 50th Anniversary event on Tuesday 6 December, but to begin talks on the planning reform that he and the Fremantle Society wish to lead, to allow the rule of law in WA to be followed.
John Dowson
President
The Fremantle Society
0409 223622
24 October 2022: Some Urgent Issues
One of many significant issues affecting Fremantle at the moment is the proposed 20 storey Matilda Bay site (former Ford Motor Company Factory site - see photo) development proposal by owners and the controversial 3 Oceans company, the one responsible for the 46 storey Scarborough Beach Road proposal.
3 Oceans, a Chinese company who generously made donations to various community groups in the Scarborough area as long as they got photo opportunities as a result, and who donated a large sum of money to the Labor Party, still have an application for their Scarborough site for now 46 storeys plus 20 plus 16, revised up from the 43 approved in 2018.
The 3 Oceans original application had been refused 6-1 by the MRA (Metropolitan Redevelopment Authority) on 7 December 2017, but that year the Labor Party was elected and the Premier and the Planning Minister criticised the rejection. On 22 December the State Government announced the appointment of 7 new MRA members, leaving only one member of the original board. Within weeks 3 Oceans had submitted an even larger development application to the new MRA, with the Premier calling for the development to be given the 'green light' even before public consultation began. The new MRA board voted to approve the application.
The photo of the Sydney beach [not included here] is relevant as various iconic Sydney beaches have managed to increase density of living nearby without resorting to Gold Coast style high rise.
The 20 storey proposal for Fremantle overwhelms the site, the area, the site's structure plan, and would be a precedent for more Gold Coast style development in Fremantle.
The issue will go to JDAP at the beginning of November.
The Fremantle Society discovered that the community have been let down again by the supposed peak body, the Heritage Council, as the Heritage Council began assessment of the site in 2004 thinking it worthy of attention, did more study in 2007, and then did nothing to progress a possible heritage listing for the last 15 years. So, the important site, originally built for the Ford Motor Company almost 100 years ago, a rare industrial heritage site, is not protected by the Heritage Council!
The Fremantle Society, along with Gerry MacGill of the North Fremantle Community Association, have written to the Heritage Council to urgently urge them to finish their assessment. They informally commented that the proposed restaurant/bar deck on top of the heritage listed offices facing the highway is unfortunate (see third photo), but there is no commentary yet about the impact of 20 storeys, something far greater than anything anywhere in Fremantle, and double the height of the Port Authority Tower.
Having wasted hundreds of hours providing expert advice at JDAP regarding the Spicer Site Andrew Forrest hotel, and seeing again how JDAP ignore community (and council) presentations, the Fremantle Society appreciate there is a huge battle ahead to get this project assessed sensibly.
You are asked to express an opinion before it is too late to be heard.
October/November (?) 2022: Former Ford Motor Company Site 24 Storey Development North Fremantle—Is JDAP Set to Ignore Expert Advice AGAIN?
File:Freotopia society .. buildings img ford8.jpgTuesday 3pm 15 November the detested JDAP (Joint Development Assessment Panel) will meet at Fremantle Council in the new undersized $60 million unfunded council chamber to determine the 24 storey application from Chinese 3 Oceans developers. The Chinese have employed Greg Rowe Associates who aggressively push their clients' interest.
Time to aggressively push the community interest.
Above is tomorrow's Herald.
The Fremantle Society has learnt that just today JDAP has asked Fremantle Council officers to prepare a recommendation for APPROVAL for next Tuesday's meeting despite a very strong officers report to REFUSE the application on grounds of heritage, urban design, height, and other issues.
Does this signal a push to approve the unapproveable?
Fremantle has been let down again by Cr Sullivan, who spoke against the officers recommendation for refusal, in what one councillor said was the longest speech in the history of the planning committee. During the marathon, he stated that " all heritage boxes had been ticked", though that is not the view of the heritage experts - The Fremantle Society, the Heritage Council, and the planning staff at Fremantle Council.
While it is true that slender towers can be better than dumpy boxes, the problem with 24 storey towers is that there is rarely just one of them - Canning Bridge had one tower for many years, but now the area resembles a new Gold Coast, with numerous developers seeking heights way above the agreed and prescribed limits. They can only get those heights because of the shocking JDAP system which is there not to get better outcomes, or provide development during covid, or provide the best expert advice, but simply to help the government's developer mates get what they want.
WA Inc Mark 2 is well under way.
John Dowson
President
The Fremantle Society
0409 223622
John.dowson@yahoo.com
References and Links
This page incorporates material from Garry Gillard's Freotopia website, that he started in 2014 and the contents of which he donated to Wikimedia Australia in 2024. The content was originally created on 3 June, 2023 and hosted at freotopia.org/society/campaign/ford.html (it was last updated on 11 May, 2024). The donated data is also preserved in the Internet Archive's collection.