PLANNING PANELS VICTORIA Port Phillip Planning Scheme Amendment C161port Heritage Overlay HO5 Subject Site: Nos. 5 and 9 Havelock Street St Kilda Expert Heritage Evidence Prepared for Meydan By Robyn Riddett Director Anthemion Consultancies POB18183 Collins Street East Melbourne 8003 Tel. +61 3 9495 6389 Email: [email protected] January, 2021 Nos. 5 and 9 Havelock Street, St Kilda 1.0 Introduction 1. I have been instructed by Rigby Cooke, on behalf of Meydan, to prepare expert heritage evidence which addresses the proposed change to the grading of No. 5 Havelock Street, St Kilda as a consequence of Amendment C161port and the existing grading of No. 9 Havelock Street, St Kilda. In response to the Amendment, Meydan submitted, inter alia, that both places should be removed from the Heritage Overlay i.e. HO5 the St Kilda Hill Precinct, St Kilda. In “Section 3 – Submissions raising objections and requesting changes – submissions all proposed to be included in C161port – Part 2” of Council’s Summary of Submissions and Recommended Responses (pp. 70 – 71) Council’s response to Meydan is viz.: Strategic importance of site Noted. Council officers have previously engaged in conversations with Meydan Group about the potential to redevelop the Cosmopolitan Hotel at this site within the existing planning controls and have provided without prejudice comments on noncompliant proposals. In line with previous advice provided to the Meydan Group, a review of the planning controls and potential contribution of this site to the St Kilda Activity Centre (noting the site is located at the edge of the Acland Street retail strip and is within the General Residential Zone) is outside the scope of this amendment and would be more appropriately explored as part of the development of the St Kilda Activity Centre structure plan. It is recommended that Meydan Group be consulted through the structure planning process to explore opportunities for this site. Regrading of 3 Havelock Street Agreed that 3 Havelock Street is a car park. Council officers recommend Amendment C161port be amended to include a further correction of the heritage grading of 3 Havelock Street from ‘Significant’ to ‘Non-contributory’. Removal of 5 and 9 Havelock Street from Heritage Overlay Amendment C161port has been prepared to make technical corrections and updates, including a series of heritage updates to controls in the Port Phillip Planning Scheme. The current grading of 5 Havelock Street as a ‘Contributory’ heritage place has been identified as an anomaly, having regard to an assessment of its intactness and integrity compared to other similar properties within the precinct as outlined in the Port Phillip Heritage Review Update, the strategic document underpinning this change. On that basis, a ‘Significant’ heritage place grading is considered appropriate and recommended to be applied through the amendment. 9 Havelock Street is not proposed to be affected by this amendment, and the changes requested by the submitter are considered to be outside the scope of this amendment. It is acknowledged that there is a degree of fragmentation along Havelock Street and officers consider that a review of the significance of these places and contribution to the precinct would be more appropriately considered as part of a strategic review of the Heritage Overlay 5 precinct. This is scheduled for a subsequent year under Council’s Heritage Program. Anthemion Consultancies 1 Nos. 5 and 9 Havelock Street Amendment C161port Panel Hearing St Kilda Recommended position / changes: Amendment C161port be amended to include a further correction to amend the heritage grading of 3 Havelock Street from ‘Significant’ to ‘NonContributory’ inside HO5. 2. Presently No. 5 Havelock Street is graded as Contributory and is proposed to be graded “Significant”. No. 9 Havelock Street is graded Contributory and no change is proposed at this time. 3. The City of Port Phillip commissioned a Port Phillip Heritage Review Update, prepared by David Helms Heritage Planning in February 2019, and which recommended the proposed changes. Figure 1 Location map. Source: Melways. 1.1 Reference Materials 4. Other than as referenced below, I have read: Planning Panels Victoria. Guide to Expert Evidence. Port Phillip Heritage Review. Volume 1. C161port – Part 1 Adoption version [of Version 32, July 2020] September, 2020. Amendment C181port. Exhibited documentation. Sands and McDougall. Directories. 1875 – 1898. 1.2 Constraints 5. Research has been undertaken at the State Library of Victoria but in circumstances where visits and visitors are limited due to the COVID 19 pandemic. This research was principally related to the Sands and McDougall. Directories. 6. Access to other sources such as maps was not possible by the date on which evidence is due to be served. Similarly the St Kilda Rate Books could not be accessed. They are not held at the St Kilda Library and the Port Phillip Heritage Centre is closed and as of 14 January there is no date proposed for re-opening. While St Kilda Rate Book information has Anthemion Consultancies 2 Nos. 5 and 9 Havelock Street Amendment C161port Panel Hearing St Kilda been put into the Ancestry Database, searches are by name not address and there is no information regarding rates and dates of entries which would shed light on the date of construction of buildings. While the Rate Books are at the Public Record Office access is severely limited in terms of timed sessions and number of persons allowed to be in the reading room. However, a session has been booked for 18 January. Appropriate repositories at the University of Melbourne remain closed. 7. Last but not least a significant Internet failure limited on-line research. 8. Research will continue at the above repositories and the results will be submitted by way of an addendum to my evidence. It is not expected that any results will change my opinions. 1.3 Site Inspection and Location 9. I have undertaken an inspection of the site from the street on two occasions. I have also undertake a drive-by survey of HO5 the St Kilda Hill Precinct. Figure 2 No. 5 Havelock Street, St Kilda. 1.2 Qualifications and Expertise 10. I am a director and principal of Anthemion Consultancies and am also an architectural historian, an interior designer and a heritage consultant. I was a graduate architect member of the Royal Australian Institute of Architects, was a Deputy Chair of the Institute’s (Victorian Chapter) Heritage Committee and a member of the AIA Awards Jury in the Conservation Section for the years 2000-01. I was at Lovell Chen, architects and heritage consultants for approximately 18 years and most of that time as an associate director. Within that practice and presently my responsibilities include the co-ordination and preparation of conservation management plans, heritage assessments, preparation of expert evidence, development of site interpretation and the restoration of historic interiors. 11. I am also a Past President of Australia ICOMOS (International Council on Monuments and Sites), and presently the Secretary and the Treasurer, of the ICOMOS International Anthemion Consultancies 3 Nos. 5 and 9 Havelock Street Amendment C161port Panel Hearing St Kilda Scientific Committee on Risk Preparedness (ICORP); past Secretary-General of the ICOMOS Scientific Council; inaugural convenor of Blue Shield Australia and past member of the Board, and past Board member of Blue Shield (The Hague) and current Board member and immediate past Secretary of AusHeritage. I completed my term as a member of the Local Government Specialist Committee which is a committee of the Victorian Heritage Council. In the past I was a long-standing councillor of the National Trust of Australia (Victoria). 12. I have been a heritage adviser in Monash and Bayside and am presently a member of the Yarra Heritage Panel. I have provided expert witness statements on similar matters on numerous occasions at Heritage Victoria, VCAT, the Building Appeals Board, Planning Panels Victoria and other similar forae on behalf of councils, objectors and developers. My Curriculum vitæ is appended. 1.3 Summary of Opinions 13. In my opinion the grading of No. 5 Havelock Street, St Kilda should not be changed from Contributory to Significant. There is no information in the Port Phillip Heritage Review Version 32 which would provide a basis for the place to be Significant and no information has been advanced in Amendment C161port. 14. There is nothing in the Port Phillip Heritage Review Version 32 Environmental History or the precinct citation which comments on the importance or otherwise of timber dwellings, or indeed even mentions them; there is no mention in the existing precinct citation of the flat area and the working classes, and therefore any attributed importance to them, as compared with the wealthy citizens on the hill; and no augmentations have been proposed in Amendment C161port. 15. Despite the methodological statement in the Port Phillip Heritage Review Update Final report that any review of the heritage grading of a place will “have regard to the definitions of Significant, Contributory and Non Contributory in the Port Phillip Local Heritage Policy, Clause 22.04”, in my opinion the definitions have not been applied appropriately. It is evident that the subject site accords with the definition of a Contributory heritage place and not a Significant heritage place. It appears that reliance has been placed on the integrity and intactness of the place rather than an appropriate assessment against the actual definition. 16. Council has acknowledged that a review of the significance of places and contribution to the precinct (St Kilda Hill) would be more appropriately considered as part of a strategic review of the Heritage Overlay 5 precinct and I agree that with this. Any consideration of any change of grading to No. 5 Havelock Street should be deferred until such work can be undertaken.