What We Did
PerthWorks started as an idea coming out of community discussions following from a showing of the video "The End of Suburbia". A few of us got to thinking about how we could get green innovative housing and neighbourhood form in Perth, and before we knew it, PerthWorks was born. Key steps along the road included:
July 2005: Initial Brainstorming session, where a group of local design, construction and planning professional came up with a wish list of what we would like to see in a green neighbourhood
Feb 2006: Scoping Session with Potential Purchasers, where we spent an evening with picking the brains of twenty or so people who said they were interested in buying if we built something sustainable and green, finding out what they REALLY were looking for (square footage, parking needs, lot and common space, level of energy efficiency and much more)
Mar 2006: Design Charrette, where we brought together a couple of dozen people with specific relevant skills, put them into four tables, and gave them a few hours to come up with concept plan for the site. Great fun and great results, all done for a tiny fraction of the cost of a full-fledged, contracted charrette.
Apr 2006: Meeting with Area Residents, just to get their input on the project, and explain what we were planning and why. We had some initial resistance at the meeting, but by the end, all thought it was a good idea.
May 2006: Concept Site Plan, where we took the designs from the four charrette tables and other sources and came up with a preliminary concept plan that embodied all of that great input, and which formed the basis for subsequent site-specific zoning for the site.
July 2006: Site-Specific Zoning was then developed and approved, which, compared to conventional R4 zoning, provided relief to encourage and allow the features incorporated in the concept plan specifically, and new urbanism and sustainable features specifically, including such features as increased lot coverage, reduced setbacks for rear yard parking, reduced lot size if accessing common area, reduced frontage, reduced parking spaces and site-specific min/max densities for SFU, duplex and apartments that reflect the varied streetscapes
Sept 2006: Design Criteria developed, which set a series of minimum design criteria that bidders would have to meet, and from which they would then indicated how they would exceed in order to receive evaluation points. For a detailed list of the design criteria, check out Appendix B of the RFP.
Nov 2006: Request for Proposal released. The two page Executive Summary outlines why this is a developer-friendly project they should bid on. The entire Request For Proposal is also available.
Jan 2007: Site Visit with bidders, where we were able to explain the concept and project to bidders, give them a feel for the site and surrounding streetscapes, and answer questions.
Apr 2007: Council Awards bid, conditional on negotiating an appropriate agreement, with the design team of Parkview Homes, New Architect and Your Healthy Home
Summer 2007: Completed site remediation, a process that took much longer than anticipated, due to some secondary contaminants being detected in the process of cleaning up the hydrocarbon contamination from the old works yard.
November 2007: Bidder Withdraws, in part because one of the key players had to pull out for health reasons.
Winter / Spring 2008: Town is approached by a developer, and agrees to re-issue the Request for Proposal but the developer does not respond.
June 2009: Town Explores Option, of breaking the property into smaller parcels in response to local feedback and releases a final proposal call, with the option of bidding on one or all of 5 parcels.
September 2009: Town Receives Development Offer, for Halton Street Parcel from GreenArk Inc, a local group committed to sustainable planning design.