Randwick’s Heritage Double Jeopardy
Randwick Council are currently fighting in the Land and Environment Court to heritage list 3 Berwick St Coogee. That’s this one:
What’s unique about this property is that they *already assessed it for heritage significance* in 2020 and found it had none:
This apparently changed in 2022 when the new owners applied for a DA to subdivide the property into two torrens title houses. Council moved an urgent motion to (re)investigate the site’s heritage significance. This was supported by 13/15 councillors:
The Land and Environment Court revoked the heritage order, but it seems like Council has not learned its lesson and is continuing to pursue multiple angles of legal attack against the subdivision:
We call these “opportunistic heritage orders”, because they are created in response to the filing of a Development Application. A property that nobody thought twice about yesterday is now a Pillar of the Community which can never be modified. Sometimes you’ll see councils say say the quiet part loud: the intent of heritage policy is to block development.
It’s easy to see why this has a chilling effect on new housing. Paying 4% stamp duty on a development site which may get slapped with a heritage order which would prevent you front doing *anything* is a very risky proposition. This applies even if the order is eventually overturned: you’re paying 6% interest rates on your loan, potentially for years, while the land sits vacant. Then there’s the legal fees for going to the Land and Environment Court.
These impositions fall hardest on missing middle development because the costs cannot be amortised over ten storeys of apartments on the site. This in turn impacts affordability and housing choice
This also means that we can’t judge the impact of heritage simply by looking at a map. We now have heritage items, heritage conservation areas, and properties that will get listed if you try to do anything with it. Places that are de facto heritage listed but which you have no way of distinguishing.
The answer here is either to disallow these opportunistic heritage orders, or to force council to bear the costs incurred by those subject to these orders, to ensure they are only applied in truly exceptional circumstances.
What can you do?
If you live in Randwick you can find contact details for your councillors here.
If you want to help the fight against arbitrary heritage orders which undermine both housing affordability and the integrity of the heritage system, you can join Sydney YIMBY here, or contact us at sydney@yimby.au.
