Hello Friends of 1 Cooloongatta Road Middle Camberwell,
It is with great disappointment that we advise you that we have been unsuccessful in our bid to protect this property.
Despite having two expert heritage consultants support the value of the Kaydon Court Flats, receiving a unanimous vote from Boroondara Councillors to support the implementation of a Heritage Overlay, many emails and letters that have been sent to the Minister, Richard Wynne and close to 2,000 signatories to this page, sadly the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning (DELWP) will not permit Boroondara to move to the next stage of the Heritage overlay process (Exhibition Phase) at this time.
In its reasoning, DELWP said there was insufficient evidence to substantiate the significance of the site in accordance with Planning Practice Note 1: Applying the Heritage Overlay. It is considered that there are more notable examples of post war flats already within the Heritage Overlay.
it went on to say, the proposed amendment did not represent a sound, strategic planning approach to identification and conservation of places of potential heritage significance. An extensive study was undertaken in 2017 and 2018 through the Camberwell Municipal Wide Heritage Gap Study, which assessed all properties in Camberwell outside the of the existing Heritage Overlay, including 1 Cooloongatta Road Camberwell, however, they did not recommend the site for heritage protection. It is considered the previous study opportunity for the potential heritage significance of the site to be assessed and determined.
We have yet to ascertain how 2 independent Heritage experts can come to a different conclusion. Also how other properties have been added to the Heritage Overlay since the Camberwell Gap study in 2017/2108
The matter of the Amendment GC172 is still outstanding, as the Owner of 1 Cooloongatta Road, Vantage Point has a Supreme Court Hearing scheduled for February 22, 2022 to dispute whether the Minister had the right to change the zoning - this change was announced in December 2020, to ensure any construction on this site and others, both in Boroondara and other suburbs could not exceed two storeys.
There are a few inconsistencies that we are following up, more matters of process, but realistically we are unlikely to secure any change in the outcome.
Our thoughts regarding the future, is to keep this group informed of the new plans, once they are issued, which will be after the Hearing in February 2022.
There is a group of us who are keen to pursue a few other avenues but to do this we need the assistance of at least four additional people. These tasks will be about making a few phone calls, sending some emails and the like. It’s not too onerous and is probably only a couple of hours of work. If you can assist, we would appreciate the assistance - please make contact with us.
It’s been an interesting and compelling journey, and despite our disappointment we have learnt a great deal and made some wonderful new friends. A lesson to be learnt, if you see an outstanding property and want to protect it, move as soon as possible, don’t wait for a Developer to buy it and then try, because it is a protracted process, and a huge learning curve.
Thank you most sincerely for all your support.
Kind regards
Concerned Residents 1 Cooloongatta Road Camberwell