LANDOWNERS aired their concern about possible future land acquisitions and the impact of the proposed Kwinana Intermodal Terminal at this week’s Communities and Industries Forum at the Kwinana Requatic Centre.
Cockburn residents quizzed WA Planning Commission (WAPC) representative Don Challis on plans for the area after his presentation on the planning requirements for a future terminal.
He said a number of sites had been considered but the WAPC’s preferred site extended north from Rowley Road and would take the form of a freight ‘village’ that would handle container shipments when the existing Kewdale-Forrestfield terminal reached capacity.
Mr Challis said Cockburn’s preferred option, extending east to west, placed too many constraints and geotechnical problems for it to be a suitable site.
The terminal would incorporate rail, container, warehouse and traffic circulation and planning stretches 30 years into the future.
Janet Moore, of Spearwood, said landowners were still in limbo in the area with nothing happening in the latitude 32 designated industrial area over the past nine years.
She said people were just not being told about what was happening on land around them.
“Just what are we planning for,” she said.
Mr Challis said the WAPC tried to keep people fully informed.
Mrs Moore asked him if the people who had bought new homes around Cockburn Central knew what was going to happen on their doorstep.
She said people should know as the noise from the terminal would affect many householders.
Wattleup resident Eva Ricci said older people who wanted to sell were in limbo because they did not know what would happen in the future and the state was not ready to pay for their homes, yet they could not sell them on the open market.
“People should be compensated for the devaluation of their property and land values because of future planning,” she said.
Mr Challis said he was aware it was difficult for a number of people but once land acquisitions for land reserved for a railway were worked out and a structure plan put together by LandCorp, people would have more certainty.
He said noise modelling would have to take place; any fears that Russell Road would be the main entry point were untrue – the main entry to the terminal would be at Rowley Road.
He said 70 per cent of the land required in the core area for the terminal was privately owned.