Heritage win for Parramatta CBD planning proposal
Changes that review the construction of high-rise towers dominating heritage neighbourhoods in Australia’s second settlement have been given the green light.
Parramatta
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Parramatta’s heritage supporters are celebrating after the council voted to pass amendments that strengthen protection of conservation zones on the fringes of the CBD.
Before a packed gallery at a Parramatta Council meeting on Monday night, residents cheered when changes to support North and south Parramatta heritage zones were passed as part of the Parramatta CBD planning proposal.
Councillor Phil Bradley said his rescission motion would enable better planning around areas such as Sorrell St and near All Saints Anglican Church at Parramatta.
This included reviewing the impact buildings up to 30 storeys high would have next to double-storey conservation buildings.
Cr Bradley said the Planning Department’s consultant GML Heritage also supported measures to stop high-rise towers looming over historical gems such as Currawong at the corner of Sorrell and Harold streets.
“We would lose our critical unique heritage identity forever and its associated cultural and economic value,’’ he said.
“Whatever happened to the concept of curtilage?”
After the meeting he described the vote as fantastic.
“I thought we would win eventually and I’m really jubilant about the result,’’ he said.
“I’m really pleased that we could get a result that’s consistent about heritage issues.’’
After the meeting, residents such as Dundas’ Mary and Jeff Okell were relieved about the outcome.
“You can’t get rid of all your heritage — it’s ridiculous,’’ Mrs Okell said.
“What heritage we have left, we should keep. I’m amazed how if you go to Melbourne, they’ve kept much more heritage than Sydney.
“We’ve lived in the area for 42 years so we’ve seen too many bad changes.’’
As well as Cr Bradley, councillors who supported the amendments were Donna Davis, Patricia Prociv, Andrew Wilson, Sameer Pandey and Lorraine Wearne.
Deputy Lord Mayor Michelle Garrard and Paul Han were absent while Martin Zaiter, Benjamin Barrak and Pierre Esber declared a conflict of interest so could not vote.
Mayor Bob Dwyer, Bill Tyrrell, Andrew Jefferies and Steve Issa opposed the motion.
After the meeting, Cr Tyrrell said he believed the amendments were asking for “over protection” of the heritage zones.
“My firm opinion is nothing in what we had moved was about destruction or removal of heritage, and I still maintain that we were still maintaining heritage, but they want to put more protection than is necessary,’’ he said.
“I believe they were asking for overprotection and I believe there was adequate protection that was going to put in place but at the end of the day, let’s move forward.’’
The meeting was adjourned to last night after an explosive extraordinary meeting at Parramatta Town Hall on Wednesday when the item was not addressed because the council spent 2 ½ hours discussing declarations of interest.
Cr Barrak declared he was staying at the meeting despite being absent from previous sessions because he owns properties in Harris Park and North Parramatta.
The meeting was adjourned so the council could seek legal advice.
Officers from the Local Government Office were present on Monday to ensure codes of conduct were followed.