New heritage controls revised

By Meg Hill

The City of Melbourne will consider deleting a number of buildings from proposed heritage controls in Southbank due in part to recent demolitions and redevelopments.

The proposed Melbourne Planning Scheme Amendment C305 was drawn from a 2017 review into Southbank heritage. But the council’s recommendations have had to undergo changes to reflect development in the area and recommendations from an independent planning panel.

The amendment originally proposed to apply a heritage overlay to 17 new individual places as well as a new heritage overlay precinct along City Rd and two new group listings for laneways and substations.

But the new recommendation that will go before the council on December 8 proposes the heritage overlay apply to 14 new places, dropping the recommendation for a new overlay on a City Rd “Industrial and Warehouse precinct” and a number of other places.

“The panel recognised that Southbank has undergone substantial change since the review was undertaken in 2017,” a report from council management read.

“The panel did not support Heritage Overlay HO1214 City Road Industrial and Warehouse Precinct, finding that while it may have once been a cohesive precinct it now lacked the requisite degree of cohesion.”

“Further, the panel did not support the Heritage Overlay proposed for places in circumstances where the buildings had been redeveloped since the review was conducted or for two places for which it determined the threshold for local heritage significance had not been met.”

A number of sites within the proposed City Rd precinct had been demolished or redeveloped, resulting in “substantial fragmentation” according to the report.

The report said council management supported all of the independent planning panel’s recommendations either in part or in full, except a recommendation to remove the Crown Chemical Company building at 63-65 City Rd from a heritage overlay.

The planning panel recommended that the building be removed from the amendment due to a live permit for demolition and redevelopment on the site.

But council management said it did not support removing the heritage overlay while the heritage fabric still remained.

Sites that are proposed to be removed from the proposed amendment due to demolition or redevelopment of buildings under consideration include the Krosky Bros building at 67-69 City Rd and parts of the former PMG postal workshops at 45-99 Sturt St.

If endorsed by councillors on December 8 the recommendations will be submitted to the Minister for Planning for final approval •