WHAT’S NEXT

Government processes

WHAT’S NEXT

Government processes.

WHAT’S NEXT

Government Processes

Photo Russell Ord

EPA Assessment

In April 2021 Preserve Gnarabup referred the proposed development on Gnarabup Headland to the EPA under Section 38 of the Environmental Protection Act 1986. In December 2021 the EPA Chair determined to assess the Proposal at the highest possible level – Public Environmental Review. This means the community will be consulted by the EPA two more times between now and mid 2023 on the Proposal.
  1. The first consultation will be open for two weeks and will be a chance for the community to review the Environmental Scoping Document (ESD) that the Proponent has prepared. The ESD sets out the environmental issues that need to be considered as part of the Environmental Review Document (ERD). In this public consultation we have a chance to point out any issues that the Proponent may not have included in the ESD.  Following this ESD public consultation the EPA sets the final scoping for the ERD and the Proponent undertakes the required environmental studies for the ERD.
  2. Once the Proponent has completed the environmental studies and submitted the ERD to the EPA, the community will have four weeks to comment on the ERD and whether it has adequately addressed all the issues in the ESD and whether it correctly identifies the true environmental impact of these environmental issues and any mitigation measures.
Following these Public Environmental Review processes, the EPA assesses the information it has and decides whether in its view:
  1. the environmental impacts of the development can be managed and mitigated and the development can proceed, or 
  2. that the impacts can be managed with special conditions/changes or 
  3. that the environmental impacts cannot be managed satisfactorily. 
The EPA then makes a recommendation to the Minister for the Environment who has the final say on whether to allow the development or not.  If you would like more detail of the documents provided to the EPA to date by Preserve Gnarabup and the Proponent, you can view them on EPA Gnarabup webpage HERE.

Development Application Assessment

The public consultation on the Development Application closed on 2 March 2022 and we understand that more than 1,849 people and organisations made submissions opposing the development. You can ready our Preserve Gnarabup HERE. 

The State Development Assessment Unit provided the following update to Preserve Gnarabup. 

“At the close of consultation for the proposed Gnarabup – Hotel, Residential and Commercial Development a total of 2057 public submissions were received, which can be broken down as follows; 

  • Not Supportive  – 1849 (89.9%) 
  • Supportive with changes – 33 (1.6%) 
  • Supportive  – 175 (8.5%) 

It is important to note that these are raw figures which may need to be adjusted once we undertake a more detailed analysis to account for any duplications or late submissions.” 

The State Development Assessment Unit will now assess the Development Application and consider all the submissions made. The State Development Assessment Unit will then make a recommendation for approval, approval with conditions or rejection of the Development Application to the WA Planning Commission. 

The WA Planning Commission cannot make a final decision on whether to approve the Development Application until the EPA has finalised its assessment on environmental impact and the Minister for the Environment has made a decision on whether to approve or not approve the development. The environmental protection legislation has primacy over the planning legislation.

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Photo Russell Ord