Issues in Bellevue

Sand Blasting in Bellevue
Another of the problems of having industry in close proximity to residential housing in Bellevue has been the issue of sand blasting. This has been carried out since the 1970's under license from the now DEC. This industrial activity can shower residences with fine particles from the abrasive silicate as well as heavy metals in some of the lead based paints being removed.

Calls by the community for this activity looked at appear to have been met with little action. In the meantime residents can expect to re-wash their clothes left our to dry and must continue to breathe suspect airborne dust.  The picture right of work carried out in the open was taken in August 2010.

Small particles (10 microns or smaller) can bypass the lungs filtering system and penetrate deep into the respiratory system where they may cause serious damage. Metals such as lead, cadmium and manganese can be extremely toxic when inhaled.		 Sand Blasting in Bellevue
Whilst quick solutions are needed here many of these sort of problems could all be solved by better strategic planning in Bellevue.

This association will continue to pursue the need for a Bellevue Structure Plan with the City of Swan, Shire of Mundaring and the Midland Redevelopment Authority.
Railway Workshop Site

On Tuesday 27th April 2010, members of the Midland Central Environmental Reference Group met with Midland Redevelopment Authority staff, environmental consultants and contractors The Georgiou Group at the old railway workshops site. After the meeting the MCERG group walked over the site to inspect the remediation work on-site.
Remediation is well progressed and is scheduled for completion by the end of 2010. Following this, the MRA will continue to roll out its plan for redevelopment of the site, including facilitating the potential location of a major university, the development of a 400+bed hospital facility and Super GP Clinic on-site.

The remediation works have been undertaken in accordance with very stringent guidelines imposed by the Department of Environment, with an independent Contaminated Sites Auditor used to ensure compliance with these guidelines. The nature of the site with its many heritage listed buildings has meant that the contractor has had to carefully excavate in close proximity to buildings to protect their foundations and ensure their ongoing structural integrity. (see picture above left).
Transport Depot blights the landscape of Bellevue

In 2009 all City of Swan councilors, with the exception of Cr David Fardig, voted against the application for a additional “Transport Depot” on what was once the golf course rural zoned block on the grounds that it was "inappropriate land use so close to an established residential area".  The developer already had approval for a transport depot on the industrial zoned block to the west and to approve the rural block non-conforming use would have considerably increased the size of the proposed depot. 

A hearing was held in July 2009 at the State Administrative Tribunal where City of Swan and the developer put their points of view. Sadly the SAT member, Mr Spillane,  decided to overturn the vote of our councilors and the wishes of our community and allow this inappropriate industrial development on rural land only   meters from our homes.
Unwanted Transport Depot

Decisions of this nature being imposed on Bellevue by SAT are contrary to the desire expressed by the Bellevue community for the last ten years to have all land east of the Roe Highway residential or compatible with residential.  

The association and the community are grateful to those councilors that voted against the extension of the Transport Depot onto rural land and for taking a stand against industrializing this portion of Bellevue.

Bellevue is one of the only suburbs in the City of Swan left with such poor strategic planning of a mix of industrial zoned blocks in amongst residential. This problem has been identified in a number of City of Swan documents and was addressed in the 2009 Bellevue Place Planning workshops but is yet to have anything done about it.

The association wishes to see all commercial kept to the west of Roe Highway and will continue to fight such inappropriate developments in this portion of Bellevue.

The association will also continue to seek to have the three authorities responsible for planning in Bellevue, City of Swan, Mundaring Shire and the Midland Redevelopment Authority work towards a proper Structure Plan for the suburb of  Bellevue. Such a structure plan will incorporate the wishes of our community for residential and green open space east of Roe Highway and bring certainty to all land owners.
Problem Zonings throughout Bellevue

Early last century Bellevue was an industrial suburb with many heavy industries like brick works. Over time these industries have disappeared and residents east of the Roe Highway have, in the main, enjoyed a cleaner quieter suburb.

Many people have looked out onto green paddocks not realizing the land is still zoned “General Industry” which means that we can expect applications for all sorts of businesses on them just like the Silo manufacturer that has produced numerous noise complaints, the fertiliser factory and the wood yard.

The zonings on this land allow just about anything right on your doorstep! And the City of Swan may be powerless to stop these sort of things being built. Recent applications to replace the golf course with vehicle storage depots have caused consternation amongst residents.

In 1998 after the release of the “Midland Revitalization Charrette” some residents had a vision and sought to have all land east of the Roe highway zoned “Residential” or compatible with “Residential”

This call for this re-zoning was picked up by the Bellevue Resident’s & Ratepayers Assoc. Inc. In 2003 Martin Richardson, the then City of Swan Strategic Planning Manager, addressed residents and promised action soon in the form of  “Place Planning”to enable the community to input to  the appropriateness of the local zonings. Place planning workshops were held for the Bellevue community in 2009 and the report is now open for comment. Further information on Place Planning may be viewed at the City of Swan web site. Zonings in Bellevue are also available on the City of Swan web site..

We encourage everyone to comment on the Place Planning report in order to make some changes for the better in our suburb. The opportunity exists to get rid of those sleeper cell vacant blocks being eyed off by the Acme Sulphur Company for their next dirty factory. Remember “Place Planning” will be for the whole of Midland not just Bellevue. Our association has already addressed City of Swan planning staff at their office and had two of their staff address the community at our meetings. 

In addition to Place Planning a presentation was made by spokesman Martin Chape to City of Swan, Mundaring Shire and the Midland Redevelopment Authority planning staff in early 2010 reinforced the desire of better strategic planning for Bellevue by our community.

We are also advised that a briefing paper on planning for Bellevue is being prepared for the Planning Minister John Day.

Omex Site News

 

 

The Omex site in Bellevue is a good example of a successful cleanup that had community involvement. The site is now remediated but will continue to be monitored. The land has been re-zoned from "Industrial" to "Residential". The next stage of the healing process for the Bellevue community is to see the planned housing development go up so that people will stop pointing at the vacant block as the ex contaminated site.

We believe that government has a big part to play in completing the mission set for it by our community in seeing this project through to completion. But the planned development (shown right) of the Omex site is stalled over the issue of "Cash in Lieu for Public Open Space". We understand that Landcorp have dumped the project and the contractor has resigned.

After being rezoned from Industrial to Residential this is a shame as to see houses on this site would have been a great part of the healing process for the community. Contact with the title holders/developers DPI who are also the approving authority has not provided any sensible information to date.

A meeting was held Planning Minister, John Day's Chief of Staff in June 2009. We have still heard nothing further from DPI. The issue of industrial blocks in Bellevue and the possibility of alternate planning arrangements were also discussed with the Minister's staff. Martin Chape has since provided a briefing paper to the Minister's office.

A letter from the Premier in July 2010 has advised that the property will go on the market later this year in order that a private developer can complete the job of putting houses up and bringing much welcomed closure to this issue.

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Waste Control Fire Contaminated Site

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In Feb 2001 a large chemical fire on an industrial block placed Bellevue at risk. Details of the event may be viewed the fire in this report.

Since that time an extensive government inquiry has taken place and a large number of recommendations taken up. This association was represented on a committee, the BCCC, conducted by DEC, and DEC have appointed a specialist environmental company Golders to oversee a cleanup of the site. A series of workshops have examined the extent of contamination and explored remediation methodologies to clean it up.

Although the Bellevue community has, at times, been frustrated at the long delay we appreciate the amount of effort and time that has been taken to painstakingly and comprehensively investigate what is involved rather than jumping in and putting our community at risk.

The Bellevue community are very happy with the way the project has been managed by DEC and the contractor Golders. All Golder staff appear very knowledgeable and professional and we feel that we are in safe hands. We are particularly pleased that all work is overseen by an independent auditor, Paul Steinwede of AECOM.

We are pleased with the way our community has been regularly consulted on these issues.

Martin Chape attended the stakeholder meeting held in April 2009 where interested parties were briefed on progress and had some of the proposed methodologies detailed to them. The handout for that meeting may be viewed here.

Basically the extent of contamination is no where as large as previously believed which makes a larger range of remediation processes feasible. There are two distinct areas of contamination or two plumes. One on the original storage site and one closer to the damp lands towards the Helena River.

Golders have investigated and proposed building a down gradient Plume Management Barrier (PRB) which will prevent the plumes continuing towards the Helena River. The extent of the contamination can be seen below. It has not reached the river.

 PRB
plume

A workshop on the proposed PRB was attended again by Martin Chape in June 2009 at Midland where final details of the PRB were explained by professional staff from Golder. It is planned to install the PRB over a 12 week period in the first quarter of 2010 dependant on weather due to the wet low lying conditions.

The PRB will be designed to work for at least 15 years and will include monitoring of its function. The project is now being managed by Landcorp. A public information session on the PRB is being held at the Bellevue Scout Hall on 5th December 2009 and the contractor Golders will be addressing a meeting and answering questions on the PRB installation at out community rooms on 8th December 2009. Please come along and be properly informed.

After the plumes have been dealt with it will be necessary to go back and finalise the clean up of the onsite source of the contamination. Methodologies being considered for this range from removing from or treating on site.

 

The PRB is was complete on schedule in April 2010 and is functioning to keep the Helena River safe . It will continue to be monitored by DEC for some years to come to ensure the river is safe.F

Full details of all the work by Golder and DEC may be found on the DEC web site. Please watch this website for accurate information and be cautious of newspaper articles.

Great Eastern Highway - Roe Highway Overpass

Planning is underway for a new interchange at the intersection of Great Eastern Highway (GEH) and Roe Highway. This interchange will enable Roe Highway traffic to flow freely over Great Eastern Highway via a bridge and significantly improve the integration of connecting traffic. Martin Chape has attended several meetings of the Reference Group set up by Main Roads WA. The next meeting is in March 2010.

Proposed road closures have concerned some business owners about the effect on their trade. A submission by this association has requested customer surveys of affected areas, close examination of Farrall Road traffic signals, ensuring improved pedestrian amenity, and attention to graffiti problems that may occur on any built bridge structures.

Main Roads advises that the project has been accelerated and they currently expect construction to start mid 2010 with a planned completion in Jan 2012. The community will be engaged in deciding on public art to make and entrance statement to the Midland area.

A series of photographs are shown below. Further information is available on the MRWA web site. 

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