ApartmentsChris ThomsonThu 25 Jun 26
Missing Half of Gateway to Perth’s Hillarys Boat Harbour Decided
The northern half of a $400-million gateway to Perth’s Hillarys boat harbour has been approved against the wishes of 503 objectors, a city council and a state decision-maker who says the project flies in the face of New Urbanism.
At a Western Australian Planning Commission committee meeting on June 24, two members opposed the $240-million mixed-use The Hillarys Village proposal by Cottesloe-based Locus Property.
One of the project’s opponents, WAPC commissioner Megan Adair, said she had no prima facie problem with the buildings’ design but they strayed too much from the existing planning scheme and the low-density nature of the suburb.
“This part of Hillarys was planned and developed by [former owner the Adelaide Development Company] and it was guided as an interpretation of [the town of] Seaside, Florida and New Urbanist development,” she said.
“I’ve visited Seaside and I have to say that this proposal in no way reflects that kind of vision.
“Landmarks in that kind of vision [have] visual references [and] terminating vistas and this is the last piece of the puzzle to complete the picture of that overall [Hillarys] development and I don’t believe that it fits that context.”
Planning tragics know Seaside as the first town conceived using New Urbanist design principles that emerged in the US in the early 1980s. The town entered mainstream consciousness when fictionalised as the shiny but sinister home of a lead character played by Jim Carrey in the 1998 hit flick The Truman Show.
Committee member Claire Franklin joined Adair in voting against the 87-apartment, $240-million project that includes 1367sq m of retail floorspace in one building of 11 levels and another of eight on a 6385sq m site.
Turning the tide toward the end of the meeting, WAPC chair Emma Cole said the site had remained undeveloped for 30 years despite sitting on district distributor roads and overlooking the boat harbour.
“This is a really great location for enhanced density,” she said of the project mooted for the northern side of the three-way roundabout intersection of West Coast Highway and Whitfords and Hepburn avenues.
As they had in the months leading up to the meeting, City of Joondalup staff opposed the project at this week’s meeting, arguing it was too dense and high for the desired character of the area. Of 601 public submissions received on the project, 98 supported it and 503 opposed it.
The boat harbour, 28km north-west of the Perth CBD, is metropolitan Perth’s third-most-visited tourist destination, behind the CBD and the historic port city of Fremantle. It is home to a yacht club, restaurants, bars, shops, accommodation, artificial beach, the state aquarium and a Rottnest Island ferry terminal.
In May 2025, Stage 1 of the project, an 83-apartment building called Harbour Sorrento, was approved. Across Hepburn Avenue from where Stage 2 is proposed, that development was also opposed by the city.
Stage 2 will make the gateway project the largest in the Hillarys area since the harbour was built there partly to service yachts competing in the failed 1987 America’s Cup defence 30km south at Fremantle.
Locus plans to start construction on the Hames Sharley designed Stage 2 project in early 2027.
