The Launceston City council has conceded properties marked for future heritage consideration could have been legally demolished in the 10 years since being flagged by a report.
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The report, prepared by council and a heritage architecture firm, highlighted significant sites and precincts and made recommendations for local heritage consideration.
This comes as an appeal against their decision to approve the demolition of a St John Street property listed in that study sits before the planning appeals tribunal.
Neighbours made representations against the approved demolition and construction of a new modern home, and one application previously refused, relating to the character of the street and other concerns.
City of Launceston council general manager Michael Stretton said the council understood the Resource Management and Planning Appeals Tribunal appeal had been dismissed, pending a required condition, but heritage matters relating to the study had no bearing on the council’s decision.
“Any implication that a review of heritage in Launceston might have resulted in the DA being treated differently is purely conjecture,” he said.
“We understand some people may disagree with the council’s decision, and even the decisions of RMPAT, but the planning process ensures all representors are able to have their say and put their case as to why a planning application should or should not be approved.”
None of the representations received at the time related to heritage matters for the property, Mr Stretton added.
IN OTHER NEWS
In 2007, the council published a detailed study on heritage issues and plans around the municipality, conducted in partnership with Paul Davies Heritage Architects – the author of the recent building heights report.
The Launceston Heritage Study highlighted hundreds of significant sites against the Tasmanian Heritage Act, including 23 specific precincts, for local heritage consideration.
The summary report recommended the Launceston City Council and the Tasmanian Heritage Council endorse and adopt the study, and undertake necessary planning amendments to incorporate its results.
The property at 217 St John Street was listed in the study, which found it met criteria a and d of clause 16 in the act.
This criteria describes a property, respectively, as “important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Tasmania’s history” and “representative in demonstrating the characteristics of a broader class of cultural places”.
The property at 217 St John Street is not currently listed either as a local heritage place, or on the State Heritage list.
In addition to individual mention in the study, 217 St John Street also sits within the South Central precinct identified by the study as having “extremely high integrity and intactness”.
“The whole precinct has a high predominance of heritage items and very few intrusive developments; the latter are in the form of more recent housing developments and several uncharacteristic institutional buildings,” the study’s summary report said.
Specific policy recommendations for the precinct put that “properties identified as heritage items should be retained and where possible future work should recover significance where it has been lost."
“Contributory buildings within the precinct (most other buildings) should be retained,” the report stated.
“Alterations and additions should be undertaken with regard to the heritage value of the place and should not adversely affect the significant attributes or streetscape value of the group.”
Responding to questions last week, acting City of Launceston council general manager Leanne Hurst confirmed the property had been flagged for consideration, but suggested state heritage and planning legislation changes had held up progress on the study’s recommendations.
“It was one of a large number of sites and precincts identified for consideration for heritage listing in the 2007 Launceston Heritage Study,” she said.
“Changes to state heritage and planning legislation, including the implementation of Interim Planning Schemes, since that time meant that further progress on the local heritage list was delayed.”
A government spokesperson refuted the claim that changes to state planning legislation had any effect on local heritage decisions.
“All local councils are responsible for managing local heritage within their municipal area, this will not change under the new statewide planning scheme,” they said in a statement.
“Changes to local heritage lists are made by way of an amendment to the planning scheme, a process initiated by the relevant council and assessed and determined by the independent Tasmanian Planning Commission and subject to public consultation.”
In response to questions earlier this week, Mr Stretton said the council was continuing to undertake work to review the existing list and identify key areas and future properties, though conceded some properties that may have ended up on the local list may have already been legally demolished.
“The current work being undertaken by the City of Launceston is to review the existing list, identify key heritage precincts, and also to consider whether further properties should be listed in the Planning Scheme,” he said.
“This work is considerable and will involve consultation with property owners once places of interest have been identified. Given the amount of work required, this is a five-year staged project.”
“The work schedule has been prepared with input from the Launceston City Council Heritage Advisory Committee.
“Priorities may change over this timeframe, however stage one of the project is currently underway, reviewing Launceston’s central area.
“Whilst it is possible that some properties that may otherwise have ended up on the local list have since been legally demolished, we are not aware of any attempts having been made to list those properties in advance of development applications being received for their removal or development.”
The owner of the St John Street property spoke to The Examiner, and was not aware of the 2007 study’s existence prior to questions.
IN OTHER NEWS
The successful development application was lodged in March this year, with an approval granted in May, after a previous application for demolition works lodged in March of 2017 was refused on performance criteria grounds.
The earlier proposal was considered too high and too close to the southern adjoining property, and raised issues of overshadowing and privacy.
A council agenda from April 24 of 2017 includes a referral on the unsuccessful development application with comments from council’s heritage/urban design planner.
The comments read: “While the subject property at 217 St John Street is not heritage listed, a large number of the surrounding properties are and the importance of this area was recognised as part of the Launceston Heritage Study 2007.”
“The site is included within the South Central Precinct of defined heritage character identified in the Study.”
“The following text includes the description, statement of significance for the precinct and the relevant policy recommendations ‘proposed to conserve the significance and heritage values of the precinct, to provide for new development that is commensurate with that significance and to encourage the recovery of significance, particularly in streetscape elements and presentation of the whole area’.”
Mr Stretton said the City of Launceston had seen $210 million of planning approvals last year across 658 applications.
“Additionally we have reduced our planning approval times from 35.1 days four years ago to 32.1 days this year, well within the 42-day limit mandated under legislation,” he added.
“The City of Launceston attempts at all times to take a balanced and sustainable approach to planning approvals in Launceston.”
There are currently more than 1500 properties listed as Local Heritage Places within the Launceston Interim Planning Scheme 2015, with more than 1000 also included on the Tasmanian Heritage Register.
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