Statement of Evidence and Report to Planning Panel
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Statement of Evidence and Report to Planning Panel Greater Bendigo Planning Scheme Amendment C235 106 Williamson Street, Bendigo Statement of Evidence Prepared by Peter Lovell Instructed by Rigby Cooke Lawyers March 2021 Prepared by Prepared for Spring Design and Development Pty Ltd Statement of Qualifications and Experience, and Declaration Authorship This statement has been prepared by Mr Peter Haynes Lovell, Director of Lovell Chen Pty Ltd, Architects and Heritage Consultants, Level 5, 176 Wellington Parade, East Melbourne, assisted by Ms Charlotte Jenkins, Heritage Consultant and Ms Libby Richardson, Heritage Consultant. The views expressed in the statement are those of Mr Peter Lovell. Qualifications and Experience I have a Bachelor of Building degree from Melbourne University and have been director of the above practice, which I established with Richard Allom in 1981. Over the past 40 years I have worked in the field of building conservation and have been involved in, and responsible for, a wide range of conservation related projects. These projects include the preparation of conservation/heritage studies for the Borough of Queenscliffe, the former City of South Melbourne, the former City of Fitzroy and the former City of Port Melbourne. In addition, I have acted as heritage advisor to the Borough of Queenscliffe and the former City of South Melbourne. In the area of conservation management planning I have been responsible for the preparation of a wide range of conservation analyses and plans including those for the Melbourne Town Hall and Administration Building, the State Library and Museum, the Supreme Court of Victoria, Werribee Park, the Regent Theatre, the Bendigo Post Office, Flinders Street Station, the Old Melbourne Observatory and the Mt Buffalo Chalet. I have been responsible for the preparation of strategic planning reports for Government House, Canberra, the Melbourne Town Hall and the Supreme Court of Victoria. In the area of building conservation works I have been involved in and directly responsible for the investigation, design and documentation of a wide range of projects including the ANZ Gothic Bank at 380 Collins Street, the Collingwood, Melbourne and Fitzroy Town Halls, the Athenaeum and Regent Theatres, Parliament House, Melbourne, Government Houses in Canberra and Perth, and the Supreme Court of Victoria Court of Appeal. I am a member of long standing of the National Trust of Australia (Victoria) and Australia ICOMOS (International Council on Monuments and Sites). I am also an honorary fellow of the Royal Australian Institute of Architects. Over the past twenty years I have appeared frequently before the former Historic Buildings Council, now the Victorian Heritage Council, and the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal in relation to matters relating to conservation, adaptation and redevelopment of historic places. Instructions My instructions in relation to this matter comprised an email request and meeting with the owners to provide a preliminary appraisal of the heritage merits of the proposed listing, and subsequently an email request from Rigby Cooke to provide expert evidence and appearance at this panel hearing. References As relevant to my consideration of the matter, documents which I have addressed as relevant in the preparation of this report include: • Bendigo City Centre Heritage Study Stage 1, Volumes 1 and 2 (Context, April 2020) • Greater Bendigo Planning Scheme Amendment C235, Explanatory Report • Planning Practice Note No. 1, Applying the Heritage Overlay LOVELL CHEN 1 Declaration I have made all the inquiries that I believe are desirable and appropriate and no matters of significance which I regard as relevant have to my knowledge been withheld from the panel. Peter Lovell LOVELL CHEN 2 1.0 Introduction This statement of evidence has been prepared for Rigby Cooke Lawyers on behalf of Spring Development and Design Pty Ltd, the owner of the property at 106 Williamson Street, Bendigo and relates to Amendment C235 of the Greater Bendigo Planning Scheme. As related to the subject property, the amendment seeks to include 106 Williamson Street Bendigo in the Schedule to the Heritage Overlay of the Greater Bendigo Planning Scheme and to amend Planning Scheme Map 19HO. The amendment seeks to introduce permanent individual controls (HO931) over the subject property which currently is not included in the Schedule to the Heritage Overlay. The subject property is located on the southern corner of Williamson and Mollison streets. The existing building presents as a single storey retail building with glazed shopfronts addressing the street frontages. Figure 1 Locality plan, the location of 106 Williamson Street is indicated by the red star Source: www.street-directory.com.au 1.1 Preliminary advice In June 2020 Lovell Chen undertook a preliminary appraisal of the proposed inclusion of 106 Williamson Street in the Heritage Overlay (refer Attachment A). The advice involved a limited examination of the heritage issues and concluded as follows: The conclusion of this preliminary review is that 106 Williamson Street Bendigo, on the basis of work completed to date, is unlikely to meet the threshold for local listing as satisfying Criteria A or D, but that it is likely to satisfy Criterion E. In satisfying Criterion E the elements of direct relevance to that criterion are the Williamson and Mollison street’s facades and a depth of the butterfly roof facade behind Mollison Street sufficient to understand the form. The remaining area of the building is of little or no significance. Should the site be included in the heritage overlay, in considering future redevelopment the options present as follows: • Retention of the complete building to the extent of the currently mapped heritage overlay area LOVELL CHEN 3 • Retention of the street facades with a nominal depth of 6 metres on Williamson Street and 8 metres on Mollison Street • Retention of the Mollison Street facade and return (8 metres) on Williamson Street, with an 8 metre depth of structure behind • Demolition and referencing the design aesthetic in the redevelopment The design of the building is not one which readily lends itself to partial retention, nor, in this case is this necessarily a desirable heritage or design outcome. As such the last of these options is one which might seriously be entertained in delivering a preferred whole is site development outcome. This advice is discussed further in the following assessment. 2.0 Amendment C235 In the exhibited documentation, the subject property is identified as HO931 in the Schedule to the Heritage Overlay of the Greater Bendigo Planning Scheme. The Schedule to the Heritage Overlay identifies that external paint controls, internal alteration controls and tree controls do not apply to the property. The extent of the heritage overlay is indicated at Figure 2. Figure 2 Detail of the Heritage Overlay map 19HO with the subject site indicated Source: Part of map 19HO, exhibited as part of Amendment C235 of the Greater Bendigo Planning Scheme 2.1 Bendigo Heritage Study Stage 1 The subject property was included in the Bendigo City Centre Heritage Study Stage 1 (April 2020) (the Study) undertaken by Context. The Study was commissioned by the City of Greater Bendigo to undertake revisions to the Study (initially prepared in 2016-7), to review and update the individual place LOVELL CHEN 4 citations to be in line with the updated Planning Practice Note No. 1.1 The Study recommended 18 new individual places, including one place extension, one serial listing and one place of potential state significance. Individual citations were prepared for the 18 sites. The citation for 106 Williamson Street identifies the subject property as being of individual significance and recommends that it be included in the Heritage Overlay on a permanent basis. The Study notes that the Greater Bendigo Thematic Environmental History (2013) could be expanded upon to incorporate the commercial and industrial history as the Study particularly focussed on the business and industry that has shaped the city centre following the mining boom. In considering post-war development, the Study identified the former Beaurepaire Motor Garage, 404- 406 Hargreaves Street, the Bendigo Bowl (159 Hargreaves Street) and 339 Hargreaves Street (assessed but not recommended as an individually significant place) in the Study as comparable examples of post- war places. Under Section 3.3 ‘Assessing and reporting’ the Study provides the following comment with regard to comparative analysis and post war sites. Postwar heritage is an expanding area of heritage consideration and not many comparative examples of Modernist buildings are included in Heritage Overlays outside metropolitan Melbourne. In the absence of local examples with existing heritage controls, the comparative analysis considers examples of similar postwar places in other local government areas to establish an appropriate ‘benchmark’. In rare cases, comparisons have been drawn between places within the study area and unnominated places located within the City of Greater Bendigo that do not have existing Heritage Overlays. This was where they provided a direct comparison in terms of their architectural providence, style or type or due to their geographic proximity to the subject site in question. When the place under assessment was considered to be of equal or better quality than the ‘benchmarks’, it was judged to meet the threshold of local significance and considered worthy of inclusion