Local councils say new planning laws will make them "almost irrelevant", with the McGowan government reducing their control over the look of suburbs and towns across Perth and WA.
The government announced major reforms on Wednesday that would hand greater powers to centralised administrative panels to consider the approval of property development.
Premier Mark McGowan argued the proposal would help deliver more housing at more affordable prices by circumventing "anti-development" councils.
The changes would allow any proposal that includes more than two homes, and worth more than $2 million, to be considered by centralised panels, rather than local councils, for approval.
A separate approvals process that sparked controversy since being set up to keep the economy going during COVID would also be made permanently available to projects of "state and regional significance".
But local councillors, and the WA Local Government Association (WALGA), say it leaves local voices shut out of the conversation.
"It's taken away local decision-making," WALGA president Karen Chappel said.
"It is the role of local government to represent the views of its members. It's called local government for a reason.
"What has been suggested, that is going to be happening going forward, [is decisions will be made] without local government having a say in what is going to happen in their communities.
"It's just not fair to communities."
Residents would still be able to participate in community consultation that panels conducted for projects.
'What's wrong with that?'
Premier Mark McGowan and his ministers spent today defending their plans, saying it would help reduce the costs of new developments by cutting red tape.
"What we're trying to do is make sure that if you want to build a house ... or you want to do a development that creates opportunities for people to live, that you can get through that process more effectively, efficiently and quickly. Now what's wrong with that?" he said.
Mr McGowan pointed to two "major" projects being built by developer Blackburne in Subiaco and Peppermint Grove as examples of what the reforms were trying to achieve.
"They will overwhelmingly be occupied by people who are downsizing from that suburb, so it gives them choice, and when you sell a house in the suburbs, those houses aren't cheap, and it gives them choice as to where they might go," he said.
Apartments at the $380 million Peppermint Grove project, named The Grove, reportedly range from $1.2 million to $22.7 million for the penthouse suite.
Western suburbs warning
The City of Nedlands was one council the government has repeatedly called out in pleading its case for the reforms, with the local authority accused of not playing its part to help increase housing density.
Deputy Mayor Leo McManus said the inner western suburbs had seen "many new unit developments" since 2018, and that the reforms would be damaging for locals.
"It means councils become almost irrelevant, in my opinion. I mean, most of the developments in the City of Nedlands will be over $2 million, particularly any unit developments, so that will not come to council," he told ABC Radio Perth.
"The developers are never open to hearing what the locals have got to say about their developments, they just want the development approved. So going straight to the [centralised panels] will certainly be welcomed by them, I would suggest."
Mr McManus also raised concerns about the government's lack of consultation with councils.
"If they had met with us and discussed these, maybe we could have some common ground or meet somewhere halfway, but they'd never consult and this just came out of the blue," he said.
Councils still key: Rita Saffioti
Planning Minister Rita Saffioti, who is responsible for the reforms, said local governments still had an important role to play by preparing and updating local planning schemes.
"And the scheme in a sense is sort of the blueprint of how the area will be developed, what should be rezoned or not rezoned, and so councils continue to have that key role," she told ABC Radio Perth.
"And in that role they need to determine where they want some density, and when they don't.
"When councils do that well then we can deliver density really well."
Ms Saffioti said delivering more housing density to help alleviate a shortage of homes was a key reason for the reforms.
"This is another way to try and support more housing, more infill, and basically ensure we have more homes for future generations, people wanting to downsize. We just, we need more housing," she said.
Industry wants 'bottleneck' fixed
The minister's position was backed by Property Council WA executive director Sandra Brewer, who said local councils would remain "deeply involved" in planning.
"The ability for them to do that is in the creation of local planning strategies, which sets out where people would like to see more medium density development, more public open spaces, or perhaps active shopping centre areas," she told ABC Radio Perth.
"What our members have found challenging is often they will make development applications which completely meet all of the expectations of the planning scheme, they meet all the planning laws of the state and local councillors are knocking it back … and that is the bottleneck that we're seeing in Western Australia."
Ms Saffioti described situations like that as one of her "key frustrations".
"In many instances the administration, the planning experts in the councils, support a redevelopment and it gets knocked back by the elected members," she said.
"The reality is these are planning professionals who are looking at the planning guidelines and suggesting something be supported."
Ms Chappel said the 139 local governments she represented accepted building more houses was necessary, but called for a "measured" approach.
"At the end of the day, for a developer to come in and have a plan for something that they see is absolutely perfect for a profit-making exercise may not necessarily be the particular exercise that's of benefit to the community, so there's a balance in all of it," she said.
"There's a whole lot of considerations when we're talking about infill, and it's not just about saying no for no's sake, it's about considering what's best for all of us."
Community must be consulted: opposition
Opposition Leader Shane Love said there had to be "an acceptance" the density of some suburbs would change but he said it should be done in consultation with the community.
"I think it's pretty clear this government doesn't think there's a place for communities in community planning, and that's very unfortunate," he said.
"I think everybody knows that we can't continue to sprawl the metropolitan area further and further along the sand dunes to the north and the south."
"There does need to be some density increases in many suburbs, but that should be done in consultation with the community and the local governments, not over the top of them."
Mr Love said the proposed planning reforms were symptomatic of the state government using its majority in parliament to increase its own powers.
"There's no barrier to the government at the moment, because of its control of the Upper House, and it's using every opportunity it can to grab more power for itself," he said.
