Tourism Planning Taskforce Report - Western Australian Planning ...

Chapter 3Current tourism development frameworkapplied on a precinct or area basis, asopposed to application to a number of specifichigh-value tourism sites.In a number of regional areas, the componentof the visitor market accommodated inresidential dwellings owned as holiday homesis significant, and this tourism use is importantto the local economy. The South-West localgovernments of Busselton andAugusta-Margaret River are investigating thesocial and amenity impacts of such use, and itsperceived impact on the operation ofpurpose-developed tourist accommodation.While this issue was outside the terms ofreference of the taskforce, it was noted as ashortcoming in the existing statutoryframework, given the lack of clarity, and that itrequires further investigation at a StateGovernment level with a view to assisting localgovernments to develop an effective response.Town Planing Scheme ZoningsThe taskforce terms of reference are specific totourist zoned land. To establish the requiredscope of investigations and an inventory ofsuch land, an analysis was undertaken oftourist zoned land in local governmentschemes in the South-West, Great Southern,Peel, Central Coast and Broome.As not all schemes contain a specific touristzoning, the review was based on schemezones that provide primarily for tourism typedevelopment, including tourism and short-stayzones, restricted use and special use zoneswhere tourist accommodation is the primarydevelopment type permitted, and specific hoteland motel type zones. It did not include ruraltype zones where these provide for ancillarytourist accommodation development such aschalets and other low key facilities. A numberof these schemes also provide for tourismdevelopment within Town Centre and likezones, along with many other uses. Thesezones also were excluded as previous tourismdevelopment has been limited and this isconsidered unlikely to change significantly.The outcome of this assessment shows thattourist zonings form a minor component only ofthe urban zoned land within each of theschemes reviewed. This generally is less thantwo percent and encompasses a very smallarea relative to residential zoned land. Reviewof the location of these sites also demonstratesclearly that the majority are located within anurban context, ie one or more boundariesborder a developed urban area, wheresignificant other residential opportunities exist.The analysis also showed that the size oftourist zoned sites, or contiguous areas, ishighly variable, from less than one hectare tomore than 100 hectare. It was also evident thatthere are few sites of a size and/or locationable to accommodate significant resort-styledevelopment, with a majority of sites of lessthan one hectare and a low level ofundeveloped sites.Town Planning Scheme PoliciesLocal government town planning schemesgenerally provide for the development ofscheme policies designed to provide guidanceto the local government, the community, andproponents to assist in the interpretation andimplementation of the scheme. Such policiesare subsidiary to the scheme and any Statepolicy framework, but can be an important partof the local planning framework.Of the local government schemes that werereviewed at least the shires of Broome andBusselton have developed scheme policies toguide their consideration, and recommendationof conditions, in respect to applications forstrata subdivision of tourist accommodationdevelopments. The Shire of Broome policysets out guidelines for the assessment of strataapplications and specific requirements forintegrated management designed to ensurethe ongoing management of a facility as abona fide tourism resort. In achieving this, thepolicy deals with such issues as managementstructure requirements, common maintenance,servicing and fit-out, availability of units forrent, and development of common facilitiesand amenity buildings as part of first-stagedevelopment.These policies have been developed within thecontext of the WAPC Policy DC 1.3 that stratasubdivision applications for touristaccommodation will be considered on theirmerits.Tourism WA also has developed a guide onthis issue, titled Strata Title TouristAccommodation Developments: Attributes ofSuccess. (See Appendix 5).24 Tourism Planning Taskforce Report