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Heritage review

Heritage review

By Alex Dalziel

The City of Port Phillip has begun consulting the community on its draft local heritage policy.

The council said that the heritage review, which will also consider previous studies undertaken in Fishermans Bend, was a response to the “community’s growth and changing needs.”

Since the gazettal of the original Port Phillip Heritage Review in 2000, the council has conducted a number of additional assessments of heritage areas, with the last being a review of Port Phillip’s heritage overlay in 2011/12.

The draft heritage guidelines provide information to support new heritage policies, which include updated protocols on how to accommodate environmentally sustainable features, such as solar panels, on heritage buildings.

At present, the review doesn’t suggest adding or removing any buildings from the heritage overlay, but to provide a basis to conduct work on a site listed in a heritage overlay area.

Key changes to policy involve the demolition of part or all of a heritage-listed place, additions and alterations, new buildings in the heritage overlay, significant trees, sustainability and services, subdivision, car parking and fencing.

The policy proposes to conserve heritage places in accordance with the procedures of the Australia International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) Burra Charter 2019; a set of principles that sets out the philosophy, terminology, methodology and techniques of cultural heritage conservation.

Demolition would be allowed if the building was found to be structurally unsound or in poor condition, and proposed to be immediately rebuilt to the original appearance.

The guidelines also aim to avoid “facadism” where demolition results in the retention of only the façade or exterior walls, and encourages developers to use and maintain as much of the original building as possible.

Attention is also payed to Aboriginal cultural heritage with the policy endorsing a strategy of using interpretive infrastructure and indigenous plant species for areas of Aboriginal archaeological or cultural heritage significance.

The City of Port Phillip is currently requesting feedback from local residents and aims to finalise the policy and guidelines by early 2020.

haveyoursay.portphillip.vic.gov.au/heritage-policy-update

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