Creating Communities and Woolworths Group have won the Public Engagement and Community Planning category at the Planning Institute of Australia’s Awards for Planning Excellence (WA) for the Future White Sands project. This award recognises initiatives in best practice public engagement or community planning that achieve an outstanding and innovative contribution to enhance built form, planning processes and social outcomes.
We would like to acknowledge and commend Woolworths Group on supporting an extensive engagement process to help inform this significant project. We would also like to thank the architects at Taylor Robinson Chaney Broderick (TRCB) and MJA Studio, and the planning team at Urbis for supporting our work on the engagement process.
Woolworths Group contracted Creating Communities to deliver a comprehensive engagement process that built relationships with the local community throughout the development of a site within the Scarborough Redevelopment Area. The local Scarborough community are passionate about this historic site, which is home to the White Sands Tavern, a key part of the live music and social scene for many years. The site is a minute’s walk from the beach, adjacent to West Coast Highway, and surrounded by a residential neighbourhood, providing the opportunity for this site to be a vibrant community hub.
Through the extensive engagement process the project received input from all levels of the community across each stage of the development, from the initial vision to the submission of the development application. This was a community-led process in which we involved local stakeholders from start to finish – reporting back at each stage to build relationships.
Key elements of the process included creating and developing the Future White Sands project brand, establishing a dedicated project website, meeting with neighbouring property owners and local stakeholders, businesses and community groups. We conducted a community survey, ran pop-up stalls at community markets, held focus group sessions and presented proposed designs at a community open day.
We are proud to be recognised for the engagement process on this project, which underlines the importance of engaging the community when embarking on a long-term vision for such a landmark site. The Future White Sands journey demonstrates how an exceptional engagement process that puts the community first can produce successful results for developers and deliver outstanding community development outcomes.
Creating Communities, alongside architecture and design firm Hames Sharley, also received a commendation in the Public Engagement and Community Planning category for the QEIIMC Futures Master Plan delivered for our client Queen Elizabeth II Medical Centre Trust. Thanks to the Trust and other members of the project team for their support and professionalism.
