Rockingham Strategic Centre Precinct Structure Plan

Rockingham is one of few Strategic Centres in the Perth and Peel metropolitan area. It plays a crucial role in servicing the growing south-west corridor. Hames Sharley led a partnership between Shape Urban, Franklin Planning, UDLA, and Stantec to review and formulate a contemporary planning framework for the 550-hectare Centre. This included a Precinct Structure Plan and a concurrent complex Local Planning Scheme Amendment.

To achieve this, a comprehensive review of the existing local planning framework for the Centre was undertaken. We conducted interactive community and stakeholder engagement sessions and then created a process to align the new Plans and amendments with changes in State Planning Policies, such as SPP 4.2 - Activity Centres and SPP 7.2 - Precinct Design.

Given the vast and disconnected nature of the Centre, a major focus of our planning and design was to explore opportunities to enhance connections between existing residential, retail, and tourism areas. This included investigating new alignments for mid-tier transit where density increases were aligned with future stop locations. To ensure practical built form controls, we tested options against an economic and architectural feasibility process.

The project was prepared during a period of State planning reform, which posed uncertainties in the implementation process. Hames Sharley tapped into our close relationships with government agencies to develop a mutually agreed method to deliver this project that exceeded the City and State’s expectations.