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INTRODUCTION

SHRAPNEL URBAN PLANNING is an independent planning firm based in Perth, Western Australia. The firm was established by Tony Shrapnel in 1986 following more than eleven years experience in town planning and project management in Australia and overseas.

The main objective of the firm is to provide clients with professional regional and town planning services of the highest quality. Since its inception, the firm has successfully completed numerous commissions, both large and small, for a wide range of government and private sector clients.

The style of the firm's operation is "hands on". All professional work, regardless of the size of the project, is undertaken and carried through to completion by one or both of the principals. Support staff are used only for basic research, drafting and administrative work. This approach ensures that clients receive a consistently high level of professional expertise and service.

 

THE PRINCIPALS

Tony Shrapnel

Tony Shrapnel graduated with honours in Regional and Town Planning at the University of Queensland in 1975. He travelled abroad to work professionally in England, Scotland and Nigeria before returning to Australia to settle in Perth in 1978. He subsequently gained wide local experience in land use, transport and other infrastructure planning, statutory planning, urban design, subdivision and land development as an employee with Wilbur Smith & Associates (Transport Planners), the Town Planning Department of W.A. (now the Ministry for Planning and Infrastructure) and the former Joondalup Development Corporation.

In 1986 Tony established SHRAPNEL URBAN PLANNING and has continued as its Managing Director to the present time. The firm has carried out numerous commissions, both large and small, for a wide variety of corporate and government clients. In recent times a large component of the firm’s work has involved town centre and commercial planning generally in the Perth region, as well as major statutory and physical land use planning projects in both Bunbury and Broome.

Since 1981 Tony has spent considerable time in developing sophisticated computer assisted modelling techniques for the analysis of social, economic and some of the more technical aspects of regional and town planning. In many projects computing expertise has been combined with more traditional planning skills to provide clients with a very efficient approach to planning problems. Much of the firm’s work has occurred in a team environment.

Tony also has a Commercial Pilot (Aeroplane) Licence which enables him to carry out site inspections from the air, and provide a better service to country clients through fast and inexpensive travel from Perth to country centres that have a serviceable landing strip.

Peta Shrapnel

Peta Anne Shrapnel (nee Makin) completed the Bachelor of Arts in Urban and Regional Studies in 1979; and the Graduate Diploma in Urban and Regional Planning in 1982 at Curtin University (formerly West Australian Institute of Technology). Both qualifications were achieved with distinctions and Peta was awarded the Royal Australian Planning Institute 1979 prize for the highest academic results in the B.A.

She has since acquired considerable experience working for state and local government planning departments, as well as two firms of planning consultants. Between 1981 and 1987 Peta worked for the City of Perth Planning Department, gaining experience in statutory planning and a number of major projects including the Central Perth Policy Document and the King Street Study.

Since joining SHRAPNEL URBAN PLANNING, Peta has participated in a significant number of projects, including a major study of the land use, function and environment of the Albany Highway and adjacent areas for the Perth City Council; and the City of Belmont Local Commercial Strategy. Recently she has provided specialised advice to the City of Perth to assist with finalisation of its new planning scheme.

 

CONSULTING SERVICES

·         Regional and Town Planning

·         Urban Research and Analysis

Each of these is discussed in the following sub-sections.

Regional and Town Planning

This is the core discipline of the firm. Both directors are qualified and experienced regional and town planners with some 38 years combined professional experience gained in Western Australia, interstate, and overseas. The scope of the planning services offered by the firm is therefore wide and includes the following:

·         Regional Planning

·         New Town Planning

·         Strategy Planning

·         Residential Neighbourhood Design

·         Commercial Areas Planning

·         Commercial Strategy Plans

·         Town Centre Planning & Design

·         Urban Environment and Townscape Studies

·         Urban Renewal

·         Industrial Area Planning & Design

Because of the multi-disciplinary nature of regional and town planning and the extent to which it may affect the community, much of the firm's work has been carried out in association with other planners, architects, engineers, and related professionals in the social and economic sciences. Both principals have frequently participated in planning teams, with several major team projects having been managed by Tony Shrapnel.

The following is a limited selection of assignments completed by the firm include (client's name in brackets):

·         Great Southern Region Retail Study (former State Planning Commission);

·         Joondalup Area Retail Study (former Joondalup Development Corporation)

·         Metropolitan Region Heavy Industry Site Study (Dept. Resources Development)

·         Commercial Centres Strategy Study (City of Melville)

·         Perth Northern Corridor Retail Model (former Department of Planning & Urban Development)

·         "Joondalup & Beyond" Physical Infrastructure Study (LandCorp)

·         Central Coast Study (former Department of Planning & Urban Development)

·         Bunbury Local Commercial Strategy (City of Bunbury)

·         City of Bunbury Town Planning Scheme No 7 (City of Bunbury)

·         Jervoise Bay/ Henderson Marine Industry Estate Planning Study (Department of Commerce and Trade)

·         Broome Airport Area Local Structure Plan (Wallace Emery & Associates)

·         Bunbury Airport & Environs Land Use Potential Study (City of Bunbury)

·         Belmont Local Commercial Strategy (City of Belmont)

·         Gosnells Local Commercial Strategy (City of Gosnells)

·         Perth Metropolitan Region Commercial Centres Policy – Retail Modelling (former Ministry for Planning)

·         Midland Revitalisation Charrette (City of Swan/ Ecologically Sustainable Design Pty Ltd)

·         Broome Airport Area Residential designs and subdivision; still in progress – up to Stage 7 (Roebuck Estate Development Pty Ltd)

·         Broome Airport Area Mixed Use Study (Broome International Airport Pty Ltd)

·         Cockburn Local Commercial Strategy (City of Cockburn)

·         Nedlands Local Commercial Strategy (City of Nedlands)

·         South-West Property Demand Study (LandCorp)

·         Mandurah Local Commercial Strategy – in progress (City of Mandurah)

·         Fremantle Port Buffer Definition Study (Halpern Glick Maunsell/ Port of Fremantle)

·         Policy Development on Port Planning in W.A. (Transport/ Sea Freight Council)

 

Urban Research & Analysis

Some planning problems lend themselves to a highly analytical approach. Where individual "systems" (for example the retail system, the traffic system) within the overall urban or regional context can be defined and elements of them quantified, they can be modelled using a variety of computerised techniques.

The value of such techniques lies in the ability to derive results from a quantified base thus allowing clear discussion and agreement about a model's assumptions before a result is obtained. The other major benefit of these techniques is the ability to answer "what if" questions once a model has been defined and established.

For example, "what if" a particular shopping centre was expanded by 10,000 square metres. Would it be viable?  Would it have too adverse an impact on other centres in the district?  Such questions can be addressed using computerised urban systems analysis.

Tony Shrapnel commenced using these techniques in the early eighties. Since then he has developed continuously with the technology and acquired computer modelling skills which have to date been successfully used in the following areas:

·         Traffic Planning

·         Economic Assessments (feasibilities)

·         Population and Employment Forecasting

·         Commercial Centres Planning

·         Plan Evaluation

·         Project Management

Innovations have, in particular, been made in the field of commercial centres planning. Tony was the first in to develop and use the technique of modelling complex commercial systems using a standard package available on most office computers. This development has put sophisticated commercial modelling capacity within the reach of all interested professionals.

In recent times land use modelling has been integrated with transport modelling, all of which has been integrated with sophisticated Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to produce output that is far easier to interpret and understand that traditional forms of model outputs.

In addition to systems modelling the firm has over the years become highly experienced and proficient at assembling, analysing and presenting demographic, employment, tourism and other statistical data. We are frequently called upon by other planning consultants to help in this regard when high level analysis is called for in a particular project.

FEE STRUCTURE 

Charges for the firm's services are generally on a fees-plus-expenses basis. Fees are based on a standard hourly or ‘project’ rate, depending on the quantity and nature of the work involved.

In many cases it is possible (and preferable) to negotiate an agreed fee and estimate of expenses in advance of commencing a project. Out-of-pocket expenses directly attributable to each project are also charged in addition to fees.

 

CONCLUSION

 SHRAPNEL URBAN PLANNING. Existing and potential clients are welcome to contact the office should they wish to examine more closely the details of previous projects, or discuss their own urban planning requirements.

Our contact details are:

Telephone:        +61 (8) 9388-2893

Facsimile:          +61 (8) 9384-7630

E-mail:              ts@shrapnel.com.au