Is development possible within a TOD precinct when there is a heritage item?
Last week while shopping at ALDI, I checked out the Chatswood Community Nursing Home and Hospital at 256 Victoria Avenue. It is listed as a heritage item and is known for its history as well as its representation of the Arts & Craft style. More information can be found on the State Heritage Register.
https://www.hms.heritage.nsw.gov.au/App/Item/ViewItem?itemId=2660256
The amazing thing (and this is what I have been telling residents) is that just because a heritage item exists, doesn’t mean that development cannot take place. In this specific example, the heritage item was amalgamated into a larger site and repurposed for different uses. Meanwhile, the development uplift (floor space) associated with the heritage item’s land is redistributed elsewhere on site so that the same number of homes can be delivered while heritage is respected.
At the moment there are a lot of anxious residents in the TOD precincts who are insisting that their homes get delisted for free. Having said that, it’s not how heritage works…. The mere existence of a multi-storey development next door does not in any way dilute the heritage significance of an individual heritage item and, if anything, it makes the heritage item more valuable. Delisting would involve commissioning heritage reports which say that the property no longer meet any of the seven heritage criteria (significance, association, aesthetic/creative/technical achievement, social/cultural/spiritual, research potential, rarity, representation). And unless the original report or basis on which the property was listed is flawed, the delisting is unlikely to happen.
However, heritage items can be incorporated into a larger site and the floor space / development rights distributed elsewhere on site. An honest and savvy developer, real estate agent or adviser will tell you this, but there aren’t many of them out there. A lazy developer on the other hand will see it as being in the too hard bucket and not touch it with a pole, which is understandable given that there are 45 TOD precincts to choose from and they are just going for the lowest hanging fruit first.
