Frequently asked questions
- Read the information sheets in the document library
- Ask a question online
- Call 9474 0777 to get in touch with a member of the project team
What is urban greening?
Urban greening is about making cities healthy and attractive places to live, work and visit.
It involves retaining and planting trees and vegetation ensuring our neighbourhoods have adequate habitat, shade and UV protection during hot weather.
Urban greening is an important part of the City’s plans to improve the liveability of our suburbs as they grow and develop.
Trees and plants selected as part of urban greening should be resilient against pests, diseases and drought or drying weather conditions. Urban greening also aims to retain and enhance habitat with native plants for our native animals and birds.
Why is the City creating an urban greening strategy?
The City has recognised that the focus of our environmental management needs to be broader than just the urban forest and tree canopy. The Urban Greening Strategy will build on the work of previous strategies and plans, including the Urban Forest Strategy 2018-2023 (External link), and will guide the management of our urban greening for the benefit of our entire community and future generations and will align with the City’s Strategic Community Plan.
What is the Hurlingham Living Stream project?
Living streams are part of enhancing the City’s urban greening. Creating a living stream at Hurlingham drain on South Perth Foreshore will improve the quality of water entering the Swan River, provide a natural habitat for wildlife and enhance the amenity of the area. Read the information sheet to find out more.
What were the outcomes of the Urban Forest Strategy 2018-2023?
You can read about some of what the City has done between 2018-2023 in the information sheet.
How might the Urban Greening Strategy impact trees on private property?
The City recognises the importance of trees and broader urban greening on both public and private land. The City has carefully considered the scope of the Urban Greening Strategy and recent decisions relating to LPS 7 and local planning policy.
The City introduced scheme provisions in Local Planning Scheme No.7 for statutory tree protection on private property, which were removed by the Minister for Planning prior to gazettal of the scheme. Draft Local Planning Policy – Tree Retention was also prepared and in July 2023 Council resolved to not adopt this draft policy on the basis of implementation and ensuring compliance with the draft policy. Read more on the City’s website(External link) (External site).
The Urban Greening Strategy engagement will consider feedback from stakeholders and the community relating to other initiatives that could support the retention and promotion of greening on private property. Examples of this could be education on the benefits of greening and extending the City’s tree giveaway program to shrubs and smaller plants that might be more suited to some properties.
What is a deliberative panel and how does it work?
A deliberative panel is a demographically representative group of people brought together to collaborate and deliver recommendations to an issue or problem.
Panel members are selected to fit agreed criteria which is representative of the wider community.
Panel members are given a clear remit to respond to, with a suite of briefing materials before being taken through an independently facilitated process to deliberate on the issue and present recommendations supported by for their decision making. Panels typically operate using a super majority model where 80% of the group must agree on the recommendations and rationale put forward.
How are panel members recruited?
For our Urban Greening Strategy deliberative panel, there will be 44 panel members, 30 of which will be recruited by independent consultant, Thinkfield, using random selection to demographically represent the City’s population in the panel.
The remaining 14 will be members of the City’s key stakeholder groups, each group providing one member whose demographics will be provided to Thinkfield before they recruit the 30 other recruited members. The 44 panel members will aim to be a demographically representative sample of the City’s population.
Where can I find out more information?
What are the next steps?
Stage 1 engagement is open and you can complete the survey until 14 October 2024. Following this date, all feedback will be analysed and principles and strategies will be developed, which will be worked on by the panel in February 2025.
What happened with the City’s draft Local Planning Policy – Tree Retention?
Following the removal of the Significant Tree Register requirements as part of final approval of LPS 7, Council requested that the City investigate the possibility of protecting large mature trees on private property by way of a local planning policy.
The draft Local Planning Policy – Tree Retention aimed to protect trees and enhance tree canopy through requiring development approval for tree damaging activity to regulated trees.
In July 2023 Council resolved to not adopt the draft policy on the basis of implementation and ensuring compliance with the draft policy. Read more on the City’s website (External site).