The WA government is developing a new ‘Urban Greening Strategy’ to promote and enhance tree canopy and greening across the Perth and Peel region.
The new strategy will complement the ‘Western Australian Climate Policy’ and ‘Climate Adaptation Strategy’, seeking to improve the resilience of the state’s cities and regions, with key stakeholder and community input anticipated to commence in mid-2024.
The Urban Greening Strategy will take a ‘whole-of-government’ approach to ensure new initiatives are coordinated and complement any existing greening programs, such as the WA government’s $3.75 million ‘Urban Greening Grants Program’ also recently announced.
Development of the strategy — to be led by the Western Australian Planning Commission (WAPC) — will explore elements aimed at enhancing tree canopy and creating more green spaces across the Perth and Peel regions, including:
- tree canopy measurement and reporting
- education and awareness
- urban heat identification and mitigation
- green linkages (including opportunities on underutilised land)
- an ‘Urban Greening Grant Program’
The state government will work closely with the WAPC, Western Australian Local Government Association (WALGA), and other stakeholders to build on the many successful urban greening projects already underway and to explore further planning incentives regarding tree retention.
The ‘DesignWA’ suite of policies includes provisions that require and incentivise retention of existing trees, new tree planting, deep soil zones, and soft landscaping along with communal and private open space in low to higher-density developments.
The recently announced revised State Planning Policy 7.3 Residential Design Codes, incorporating the medium density code, include incentives to retain existing trees as well as minimum planting and soft landscaping standards for new developments in medium-density areas.
This builds on the apartment codes released in 2019 that include minimum requirements for deep soil zones, tree planting and soft landscaping in higher-density developments.
The strategy will be developed with community input and the state government invites all stakeholders to provide their input by Friday, 7 June 2024, visit: wa.gov.au/urban-greening-strategy
