The first development on William Street under new City of Vincent guidelines has been approved by state planning officials.

The application was heard by the Metro Inner Development Assessment Panel on Thursday and saw members vote 4-1 in favour of the eight-storey development in Perth going ahead.

Lavan lawyer Alex McGlue made a deputation on behalf of resident Robert Piper and said that the development area was not zoned as a district centre and therefore shouldn’t be granted approval.

“The city officers in the [responsible authority report] say that this area is a district centre under the [state planning policy], however, a separate letter from the city that’s attached to my client’s submission says that this area is not a district centre under the SPP,” he said.

“Whether or not this area is a district centre under the SPP has important legal consequences.”

However, panel members did share that opinion, with most saying the application was appropriate for the location.

Deputy presiding member Dale Page said she couldn’t support the contention that the district centre zone for this site was “an error”.

“It’s not something that would just get slipped in as a typo into the scheme. That was a decision that was made after substantial consultation, preparation, and endorsement of a local planning strategy, and approval by the minister,” she said.

“This DAP needs to deal with the zoning as it is, not how others think it should be.”

City of Vincent councillor Nicole Woolf was the only panel member to oppose the development, and said she believed the zoning area was a district centre,

“I have carefully considered the concerns raised regarding the status of William Street and the broader strategic planning issues, and for the purposes of determining this application, I absolutely accept that this area is a district centre,” Woolf said.

Despite this, she did not support the application on the grounds that the community benefit for an additional building height allowance was not sufficient

An amendment was passed to ensure a greater community benefit will be provided by the applicant.

The development application is the first to be submitted under the city’s new William Street Planning Framework.

Despite the WSPF permitting only six storeys for the location, building owner Skypacts Property Resources has requested an extra two storeys in height in exchange for “community benefit”.

The $10 million proposal is set to be built at 441 William Street in Perth on a currently vacant block of land that abuts the Perth Mosque.

It includes six one-bedroom apartments and three three-bedroom apartments, office spaces up to the fourth floor and a rooftop terrace.

Nine residential parking bays will be provided and 12 commercial spots.

According to the proposal, the community benefit provided for the additional height space will be the conversion of car bays within the adjacent William Street road reserve into streetscape upgrades.

Earlier this week, residents in the nearby heritage homes told this masthead they feared the approval of this application would be the beginning of the end for their humble precinct.

“Once this is done, you can’t undo it. The Heritage Act talks about the precautionary principle: don’t do something if you can’t undo it. If you’re not sure, stop, take a pause,” Robert Piper said.

“It’ll be like being in a fishbowl here. We’re at the bottom, the low point here in the landscape, at the bottom of the lake. We’re going to be surrounded by this stuff.”

Mohammed Illias from the Perth Mosque said his community was concerned the William Street development, which abuts the place of worship, would overshadow them

“It includes a commercial frontage on Brisbane Place which has always been residential and will increase traffic in this narrow street. It often becomes congested, particularly on a Friday when we regularly have hundreds of attendees at Mosque,” he said.

Presiding member Clayton Higham said he was assessing the application under the grounds that the William Street Planning Framework is a local planning policy and not as a “de facto structure plan”.

“In doing that, of course, it means that the level of weight that I would give to that is less than if it was a structure plan, but I’m happy that the local planning policy has gone through considerable consultation and development through the various strategic plans within the city,” he said.

“In summary, it’s a quality mixed-use development providing some additional inner-city residential accommodation. So well done.”