The Karrinyup Shopping Centre redevelopment consultation period has now closed and residents are waiting for the City of Stirling to assess the development application for the high-rise apartment buildings.

The community consultation period closed on August 24 and more than 700 residents signed a survey responding to the development of the north-east and western apartment buildings.

The City of Stirling said it was unable to extend the consultation period due to deadlines set by the Joint Development Assessment Panel.

All of the community feedback, together with the City’s assessment of the development, will be compiled into a Responsible Authority Report.

Some Karrinyup residents raised their opinions on the redevelopment at the City of Stirling council meeting on September 8.

Resident Andre Dines said when the community was originally consulted about the construction, many years ago it was not a high-rise development.

“We were told we would be looking at four-storey buildings. Subsequently when the shopping centre got approved in 2015, it was eight storeys in some sections. The current proposal is nine, 15 and 24 storey buildings,” he said.

City of Stirling councillor Karen Caddy said it was JDAP who made the final call, regardless of the council’s recommendation to refuse or accept the development.

“As the proposed development has been lodged as a DAP application, the city is not the decision-maker for this application with the application to be determined by the Metro Inner-North Joint Development Assessment Panel,” she said.

A Department of Planning, Lands and Heritage spokesperson said, in making its determination, a DAP must consider a range of information including submissions or reports from technical experts and submissions from other interested parties.

“As part of the State Government’s planning reform agenda, a number of structure and process changes are being implemented to the DAP system to improve consistency and transparency across decision making,” she said.

Mr Dines said his household was not against the shopping centre development but was against the current proposal.

“We are not anti-development. We understand some people will support it and some people will hate it. Our issue was letting everyone know about it, otherwise it was just going to slip through the cracks,” he said.

A petition opposing the proposed tall-rise building has so far received 839 local signatures, compared to a petition supporting the development that has 16 signatures. The petitions are closing on September 30.

The City of Stirling said the Responsible Authority Report would go to council for consideration before being presented to the JDAP, and that it would including the community complaints and feedback.

The City of Stirling RAR is currently being assessed and is due to be published on September 29.