TRANSPORT, HERITAGE AND PLANNING SUB-COMMITTEE 31 JULY 2017 ITEM 8. AWARD OF HERITAGE FLOOR SPACE - HYDE PARK BARRACKS FILE NO: X009395 SUMMARY The City’s heritage floor space scheme provides an incentive for conserving and maintaining heritage buildings in central Sydney. The scheme enables the transfer of development potential from conserved heritage items to approved development elsewhere in central Sydney. The transferable floor space is known as heritage floor space. A heritage item owner can seek an award of heritage floor space for proposed conservation works or for previously completed conservation works. Once conservation works are completed, covenants registered on title and an award granted, the owner can sell the heritage floor space to developers who require it under conditions of consent for approved development. Sydney Living Museums has applied for a retrospective award of heritage floor space for conservation works undertaken on Hyde Park Barracks. The application is the first of its kind, being sought by the Crown for a government-owned building on the basis of previously completed conservation works. It takes advantage of recent changes to the heritage floor space scheme allowing government-owned buildings to apply for an award. No other new works are proposed as part of this application. Dating from 1819 and constructed as the first convict barracks for the New South Wales colony, Hyde Park Barracks represents one of Sydney’s finest public heritage buildings of recognised local, state, national and world significance. Since 1975, conservation works have been completed to the complex of buildings to a high standard, guided by the best available conservation knowledge and practice. Over 15 years, between 2001 and 2016, Sydney Living Museums has invested $3.4 million to conserve, maintain and upgrade the buildings. A further $4.3 million is programmed for the next nine years. Sydney Living Museums has successfully maintained, interpreted and celebrated the significance of the item as a house museum open to the public. The comprehensive conservation management plan prepared by Lucas Stapleton Johnson & Partners for the full barracks site provides appropriate guidance for ongoing conservation of the significance of the heritage item. The plan is at Attachment A. This report recommends Council approve an estimated award of 12,732.5 square metres of heritage floor space, subject to the covenants for maintenance and development limits required under Sydney Local Environmental Plan 2012 and Sydney Development Control Plan 2012 and subject to submission of final survey plans. This award will recognise the successful conservation of one of Sydney’s most significant heritage items and provide for its ongoing maintenance and conservation. RECOMMENDATION It is resolved that: (A) Council approve the Conservation Management Plan for Hyde Park Barracks dated October 2016 prepared by Lucas Stapleton Johnson & Partners, as shown at Attachment A to the subject report; AWARD OF HERITAGE FLOOR SPACE - HYDE PARK BARRACKS 10161207 TRANSPORT, HERITAGE AND PLANNING SUB-COMMITTEE 31 JULY 2017 (B) Council approve an award of approximately 12,732.5 square metres of heritage floor space under Sydney Local Environmental Plan 2012, noting that the final award will be calculated based on survey plans to be submitted by the owner, and provided the owner enter into a deed with Council in the form required by Council and register any required covenants on the title of the land to: (i) ensure the continued conservation and maintenance of the building in accordance with the Conservation Management Plan dated October 2016 by Lucas Stapleton Johnson & Partners; and (ii) limit any future development of the site to the existing heights of heritage buildings on site and to the existing combined gross floor area on site of 2,527 square metres; (C) authority be delegated to the Chief Executive Officer to calculate the final award on the basis of survey accurate plans of the Hyde Park Barracks site and finalise the deed and required covenants on this basis; and (D) the applicant be advised that all legal documentation must be prepared by Council’s solicitor and that the cost of preparation and registration of all documentation must be borne by the owner. ATTACHMENTS Attachment A: Conservation Management Plan (Note – Due to its size, hard copies of Attachment A have not been circulated. An electronic copy is available for viewing on Council’s website. A hard copy can be made available on request.) AWARD OF HERITAGE FLOOR SPACE - HYDE PARK BARRACKS 10161207 TRANSPORT, HERITAGE AND PLANNING SUB-COMMITTEE 31 JULY 2017 BACKGROUND 1. The City’s heritage floor space scheme provides an incentive for conserving and maintaining heritage buildings in central Sydney. The scheme enables the transfer of development potential from conserved heritage items to approved development elsewhere in central Sydney. The transferable floor space is known as heritage floor space. Clauses 6.10 and 6.11 of Sydney Local Environmental Plan 2012 and 5.1.9 of Sydney Development Control Plan 2012 provide the legislative framework for the scheme. 2. A heritage item owner can seek an award of heritage floor space for proposed conservation works or for previously completed conservation works. Once conservation works are completed, covenants registered on title and an award granted, the owner can sell the heritage floor space to developers who require it under conditions of consent for approved development. 3. In 2015, Council approved changes to the scheme enabling items which had previously received an award to be granted a second award after a period of 25 years. It also approved changes to allow awards to be granted for previously completed conservation works and to government-owned buildings. These changes were introduced to increase the supply of heritage floor space in response to a critical shortage that risked stalling major central Sydney developments. 4. This is the first application of its kind, being sought by the Crown for a government- owned building based on previously completed conservation works. As no new works are proposed, the application was lodged without a development application, as a retrospective award application. Subject site 5. The subject site at 12 Macquarie Street, Sydney, has a site area of approximately 5,093 square metres. This includes the land with the current legal description of lots 45-49 and part lot 43 of DP 47116 and lot 1 of DP 48231. The subject site boundary is shown at Figure 1. 6. With its principal frontage to Queens Square, the site is bound by Macquarie Street to the west, Prince Albert Road to the south and Hospital Road to the east. It adjoins two other heritage items, including The Mint to the south and the Registrar General’s Department and Land Titles Office to the south-east. 7. This site contains the central main barracks building and perimeter buildings contained within a walled compound. A triangular section of land extends outside the walled compound to the west, forming the forecourt. The perimeter buildings are individually identified in the application, as shown in the site plan at Figure 2. 8. Lots 45-49 of DP 47116 and Lot 1 of DP 48231, which form the majority of the site, are owned by Historic Houses Trust of NSW, a statutory authority of the State Government, which incorporates Sydney Living Museums. Historic Houses Trust is the statutory name for Sydney Living Museums, established to manage historic buildings under the Historic Houses Act 1980. A small portion of the site along the eastern boundary, which forms part of Lot 43 of DP 47116, is under separate ownership of Properties NSW. AWARD OF HERITAGE FLOOR SPACE - HYDE PARK BARRACKS 10161207 TRANSPORT, HERITAGE AND PLANNING SUB-COMMITTEE 31 JULY 2017 9. The compound of buildings and land is listed as a heritage item in schedule 5 of Sydney Local Environmental Plan 2012 as the “Former Hyde Park Barracks including forecourt, wall and gatehouses, interiors, grounds, former District Courts and offices and archaeology”, item number I1867. The listing boundary is shown in the heritage map extract at Figure 3. Figure 1: Hyde Park Barracks boundary AWARD OF HERITAGE FLOOR SPACE - HYDE PARK BARRACKS 10161207 TRANSPORT, HERITAGE AND PLANNING SUB-COMMITTEE 31 JULY 2017 Figure 2: Building plan (Source: Lucas Stapleton Johnson & Partners, Conservation Management Plan, October 2016) Figure 3: Heritage item boundary AWARD OF HERITAGE FLOOR SPACE - HYDE PARK BARRACKS 10161207 TRANSPORT, HERITAGE AND PLANNING SUB-COMMITTEE 31 JULY 2017 Figure 4: Main barracks building (Source: Sydney Living Museums) History and significance 10. Dating from 1819 and constructed as the first convict barracks for the New South Wales colony, Hyde Park Barracks represents one of Sydney’s finest public heritage buildings of recognised local, state, national and world heritage significance. As well as the local listing, the complex is listed on the State Heritage Register and National Heritage List. It is also listed as part of the serial world heritage listing for 11 Australian convict sites. The main barracks building is shown at Figure 4. 11. Built with convict labour for Governor Macquarie, the barracks represents one of the finest surviving works of celebrated convict architect Francis Greenway, and demonstrates Governor Macquarie's vision for Sydney. It provides evidence of the early nineteenth century era of convict transportation, particularly the accommodation and living conditions of male convicts in New South Wales from 1819 to 1848. 12. The site provides evidence of further significant phases in Australia’s history following the convict era. These include its use by government institutions during the second half of the nineteenth century as accommodation for immigrant women and as a female asylum, and its use as the home of other government functions and many legal institutions for more than a century. Since the 1980s, the barracks has been a site for pioneering heritage conservation practice and archaeological investigations, through its conservation and conversion to a museum.