Calvary has made a new application to bulldoze a $4 million North Adelaide mansion

A NEW bid has been made to bulldoze a historic mansion — that resulted in considerable community opposition and a legal challenge — as part of a multimillion-dollar private hospital upgrade.

The historic mansion at 306 Ward Street, North Adelaide.

A NEW bid has been made to bulldoze a historic North Adelaide mansion — that resulted in considerable community opposition and a legal challenge — as part of a multimillion-dollar private hospital upgrade.

Calvary’s application to the State Planning Commission expand its North Adelaide hospital sparked outrage from residents when it emerged it would require the demolition of the property next door at 306 Ward St, which it bought last year for $4 million.

That price has only been topped by the $4.4 million purchase of 24 Brougham Place in 2013 as North Adelaide’s most expensive house sale.

The Ward St property is not heritage-listed and became ground zero for opposition to the contentious development plan for North Adelaide schools and hospitals, which The Advertiser revealed could allow them to expand on to more than 150 private properties.

A resident next door to the mansion lodged a legal challenge in the Environment, Resources and Development Court.

Calvary Hospital in North Adelaide.

Just last week Friends and Residents of North Adelaide, a group established in response to the application, were claiming on social media that they had “won” after learning Calvary scrapped its application to demolish the mansion.

But a new application for the property, and Calvary’s Strangways Tce site, has been lodged on the SA Planning Portal.

In the description for the new application, it says the proposal is for “Alteration and additions to Calvary North Adelaide Hospital, comprising the demolition of a dwelling at 306 Ward Street, construction of a new single storey hospital ward, ancillary two-level basement carparking and associated building works”.

This only differs from the previous application through the removal of a proposal for the removal of “a significant tree” and for landscaping.

In advice provided to Adelaide City Councillors, obtained by The Advertiser, council administration say the new application “is ostensibly the same as the previous proposal” in terms of bulk and scale but the “exterior design differs”.

It says that Calvary recently engaged the services of heritage adviser Dash Architects to help with the design of the proposal.

The advice also says that since the original application has been withdrawn, the legal challenge in the ERD Court is “no longer relevant”.

The back yard of the mansion at 306 Ward Street, North Adelaide

North Ward incumbent councillor Phil Martin said the community would be disappointed by the latest development.

“This is very disappointing, we all thought there was the possibility that legal action might prevent or slow down the demolition but it seems not,” he said.

“We are in for a very long fight.”

The Advertiser has contacted Calvary for comment.