The long-running fight against development at Smiths Beach in Yallingup has been dealt a huge blow after the Environmental Protection Authority recommended the project be approved.
The EPA made public its recommendations to Environment Minister Matthew Swinbourne on Tuesday, five years after the Adrian Fini-led developer Smiths 2014 Pty Ltd first lodged the 42-hectare Smiths Beach Project proposal.
The project, valued at $280 million in 2022, includes a hotel, wellness centre, 61 holiday homes, campground, community hub and surf lifesaving club.
The recommendation comes six days after Swinbourne approved Saracen Properties’ 121-room five-star Westin resort and residential village in Gnarabup, south of the Smiths Beach site.
In its press release, the EPA took the step of noting that “several members” of the EPA, including chair Darren Walsh declared a conflict of interest regarding the Smiths Beach proposal and were not “involved in any related discussions and/or decisions.”
Walsh has a lengthy history working in the development sector, including at Satterley Property Group, and at JBS&G, the environmental consultancy that Fini used to prepare its application to the EPA.
Locals have been fighting development at the site for more than two decades under the Save Smiths Beach banner, citing concerns about the level of clearing, fire risk, sewage impacts and the use of the controversial State Development Assessment Unit to gain planning approval.
The proposal has also attracted criticism from the opposition and features in an ongoing opposition-led parliamentary inquiry into Labor Government planning procedures.
The EPA made its recommendation subject to conditions around wastewater management, clearing and offsets of fauna habitat.
Those offsets, proposed by Fini’s company, included rehabilitation of western ringtail possum and black cockatoo foraging habitat at three sites within the state government’s estate.
Other conditions include requiring the developer to manage weeds at the site and 50 metres outside the development envelope, including on Crown land.
“Maintaining habitat connectivity between vegetation in the development envelope and the Leeuwin-Naturaliste National Park is front and centre of the EPA’s conditions,” an EPA spokeswoman said.
“Other measures in the proponent’s conservation significant Fauna Management Plan and Offset Strategy address feral animal control, nearby offset areas, and a community-based revegetation program.
“And conditions relating to secondary foraging and dispersal habitat for the western ringtail possum contain a requirement for a conservation covenant. This includes establishment costs and long-term management and maintenance costs.”
A Smiths Beach Project spokeswoman welcomed the EPA’s decision and said the company would adhere to the conditions.
“Our project team of leading Australian landscape designers and architects have designed the coastal village, including its hotel and community facilities, in a way that is sensitive to the site’s environmental and cultural significance,” she said.
“This brings us closer to realising our project vision of creating a world-class seaside village for the benefit of Western Australia and the South-West – enabling the local community and visitors to this state to share and enjoy the best aspects of our lifestyle and environment.”
Fini was behind the Bunker Bay Resort, built south of Smiths Beach in 2004, and has been pursuing a development at the Smiths Beach site after purchasing it alongside several other families in 2014.
The previous owner’s proposal attracted the first iteration of the Save Smiths Beach community protest campaign, with locals claiming a win after the developer went on to become embroiled in a Corruption and Crime Commission investigation, along with several local councillors.
The structure plan approved under the old owners’ proposal featured up to 500 tourism and residential dwellings, with the western side of the lot to be handed to the state government as a national park.
Fini’s new proposal features a broader footprint but less density, which Fini in the past has said improved amenity and greater retention of vegetation.
Last year, Fini’s company removed a planned ramp to Smiths Beach over community concerns it would act like a “sea wall”.
The EPA’s recommendation will be open for three-week public appeal period.
Vasse MP Libby Mettam was approached for comment.
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Hamish Hastie is WAtoday’s state political reporter and the winner of five WA Media Awards, including the 2023 Beck Prize for best political journalism.Connect via X or email.From our partners
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