Woollahra Council is poised to create a new heritage-protected precinct directly opposite Edgecliff train station in what some property owners have labelled a blatant attempt to undermine the state government’s housing reforms.
In the latest version of its long-awaited plan for Edgecliff, the council also has removed 13 sites previously slated for redevelopment uplift, partly to preserve views from Paddington to Rushcutters Bay Park.
One of the buildings, 164 New South Head Road, that is set to be heritage listed by Woollahra Council. It is opposite Edgecliff Station.Credit: Flavio Brancaleone
Councillors on Monday night will debate a proposal to declare the “Brantwood heritage conservation area”, comprising five buildings on and behind New South Head Road, and to add several other Edgecliff properties to the heritage list.
The heritage investigation began in 2022, well before state Labor came to power or devised its policies to increase housing density near train stations. However, numerous property owners suggested the council was proceeding with the listing to sabotage those planning reforms.
“It is clear as day what the council is doing,” wrote Bill Bracey, chairman of the strata committee at one of the affected buildings. “In short, a last-minute grab to stop the state government allowing further development.”
Bracey said his building was in a “very poor state”, and the body corporate was $700,000 in debt following repairs.
Another building in the proposed Brantwood heritage conservation area opposite Edgecliff Station.Credit: Flavio Brancaleone
Hair stylist Nicholas Venet, whose salon is in one of the buildings, said there was no aesthetic or architectural beauty in the proposed Brantwood estate, and the exercise seemed to be “an attempt by Woollahra Council to thwart the hopes of the NSW government to increase density of housing and accommodation around transport hubs”.
“If so, we deplore this action re: these buildings,” Venet and another person wrote. Heritage listing does not prevent all development but limits what can be done. A handful of property owners wrote to support the listings.
Woollahra Council engaged GML Heritage in August 2022 to identify potential heritage items on New South Head Road between Rushcutters Bay Park and Edgecliff station, to be called the Edgecliff Commercial Centre.
The council began drafting a new plan for the area in 2015. It would set new maximum heights along the corridor, including 26 storeys on the site currently occupied by the Edgecliff retail, commercial and transport complex. The limit at other sites is generally 10 to 12 storeys.
An updated draft shows 13 redevelopment sites have been removed from the original plan, partly to preserve “the physical and visual connection between lower Paddington and Rushcutters Bay Park”.
The council says the plan, if fully developed, could add 490 to 615 dwellings to the Edgecliff area. That is a slight increase on the original, due to revised floor space ratios and the inclusion of a 12-storey project that is up for Planning Department approval against the council’s wishes.
Edgecliff was left out of the state government’s transport-oriented development program, but the station will come under planning controls in Labor’s separate low- and mid-rise housing reforms.
Woollahra’s Liberal mayor Richard Shields said the heritage listing was “definitely not” an attempt to thwart the state government. “This was assessed by independent heritage experts and this was the advice they came back to us with,” he said, adding it had been a “long time in the making”.
Cobham is “a good intact example of a small-scale flat building designed in the Interwar Art Deco style with ‘skyscraper Gothic’ and Old English influences”.Credit: Flavio Brancaleone
Planning Minister Paul Scully noted the process began before the government’s planning reforms were announced, but said: “It is important that in well-located areas close to Sydney CBD, careful consideration is given to any proposed heritage listings.
“Councils have the right to retain important parts of the city’s past, but not to actively misuse the heritage system to avoid being part of Sydney’s housing and jobs future.”
Brantwood Estate was the site of a Victorian villa built by John Marks in 1880. After Marks died the land was subdivided into six lots. The buildings, designed by interwar architects including DR Ward, AE Stafford, EC Pitt and AM Bolot, were built between 1929 and 1936.
The council’s statement of significance said the buildings and their layout created “a significant space that is a complementary, cohesive, rare and aesthetically unique site within the Woollahra local government area”.
The much-maligned Edgecliff Centre could be developed into housing with a maximum of 26 storeys under the council vision.Credit: Flavio Brancaleone
Not all property owners and residents agreed. Addressing a council meeting last week, Amrit Bahra said the Brantwood heritage conservation area was historically insignificant and “a complete fabrication”.
“It just isn’t a thing. It’s nothing but an arbitrary line that was drawn on a map which lasted for 50 years, and that was 100 years ago. It’s a complete irrelevance,” Bahra said.
“These are a jumble of unremarkable and independent buildings, which have seen better days. The bar needs to be a lot, lot higher. We can’t just heritage-list everything. We have to be selective for heritage listing to have a meaning.”
Bahra also said he opposed high-rise development, applauded the council’s “planning discipline” and had written to Premier Chris Minns to criticise the state government’s housing policies.
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