Heritage alliance urged to take fight over historic buildings to state MPs
A call-to-arms has been issued to residents to target their MPs if they want to protect their historic suburbs from the bulldozer.
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Opponents of planning reforms they fear will imperil their historic neighbourhoods have been urged to target their local MPs in a bid to halt the erosion of the state’s cultural heritage.
About 500 people at a pro-heritage forum at Norwood last night for the launch of a new Protect Our Heritage Alliance, which will campaign to safeguard historic neighbourhoods from unimpeded development.
The alliance has been formed in response to the planned rollout of a single planning and design rule book for the state residents and councils fear will erode demolition protection for nearly 12,000 historic buildings.
Heritage consultant Denise Schumann OAM told the forum at the Norwood Concert Hall that successive governments had not protected heritage and people must start to target their local members.
“I think people have to stop being naive if they think that playing by the rules you are going to protect your heritage,” the wife of musician John Schumann said.
“We have seen successive erosion to what is the value and the cultural identity of our state’s heritage.
“You will not change anything unless you threaten their seats (politicians) — this has got to be a political campaign.”
She said the State Planning Commission, which is driving the planning reforms, was pro development and that it did not view heritage as a valuable community, social, economic or cultural concept.
A key concern of the reforms is the potential threat to contributory items, thousands of historic homes that contribute to the heritage value of neighbourhoods, such as St Peters, Kensington, Brompton, Port Adelaide, Unley and Gawler.
It is proposed these places, listed in council development plans and contained within heritage conservation zones, will not transfer into a statewide planning and design code legislated to begin operation from July.
Sydney heritage expert David Logan warned experience interstate is removing contributory items led to buildings being “picked off”.
“If you want to keep the heritage value of the area then you need to retain contributory items, if you allow them to be whittled away or be eroded then eventually you will not have a historic conservation zone,” he said.
“You end up with replacement dwellings, most of which dominate the streetscape and most of which dominate the character and scale of the area, so it’s a double-whammy effect, you lose the historic value and the new development is actually detracting from the character and significance of the area.”
He said keeping and identifying contributory items created more certainty for owners and was fairer for purchasers.
“Even if they don’t want to demolish it, they will know there’s an expectation the changes they want to make will go through greater scrutiny,” he said.
“Not allowing councils to identify them … you actually end up fighting rearguard battles and you do lose contributory items.”
The commission and Planning Minister Stephan Knoll have said publicly that contributory items have no legal status and therefore cannot transfer over to the new code.
They have also argued there is inconsistency between councils over planning controls governing management of these buildings.
Instead they have said new heritage overlays, to replace historic conservation zones, will strengthen demolition control, a claim the National Trust refuted.
Planning Commission chairman Michael Lennon rejected the assertion it was pro any particular industry or sector.
“This is a statewide once-in-a-generation planning reform, prescribed by parliament, which is being delivered in an non-biased, evidence-based way,” he said.
“It is important to note that only 25 councils of the state’s 68 councils have contributory items within their boundaries so this is not a state issue but a local one for particular suburbs mainly within Greater Adelaide.”
He said the draft code, including heritage-related proposals, will go on public consultation from October.
Norwood Payneham & St Peters Mayor Robert Bria told a parliamentary committee this month that the loss of contributory items will rewrite SA’s history “with a bulldozer”.
Emeritus Professor Warren Jones, who his heading up the new alliance, said the community response at last night’s meeting was a warning to Mr Knoll and the government to rethink their approach to heritage management.
“After 18 years of inaction by both Liberal and Labor governments to improve heritage protections, changes are being rushed and compromised and are disregarding a growing groundswell of concern,” he said.
The Advertiser has sought comment from Mr Knoll.