Case Study: Ku-ring-gai Urban Conservation Areas Studies
Community awareness is increasingly focused on urban planning issues such as the design of new development and the appearance and quality of the built environment. Godden Mackay Logan was commissioned by Ku-ring-gai Municipal Council to carry out Urban Conservation Area Studies in a number of suburban areas. The studies were part of the process of clarifying planning controls in order to protect the characteristics that residents value in these areas, while providing clear guidelines for developers on development likely to be acceptable to Council.
The areas to be assessed tended to be around the North Shore railway corridor, where much of the early suburban development occurred and where there is now a considerable amount of development pressure. The National Trust had previously classified a number of ‘Urban Conservation Areas’ and Council wished to determine whether it should statutorily list them. The team from Godden Mackay Logan assessed these areas, defining what was significant about them, and then recommended a strategy for conserving these heritage values.
As part of the project, Godden Mackay Logan conducted a series of community consultations to communicate the heritage values that had been identified, and to receive community opinion.
The initial phase of the studies involved identifying each area’s heritage significance, and categorising the results in a way that would be clear to residents and town planners. Every property was evaluated for its contribution to the proposed conservation area. Together, individual properties and other landscape features were assessed in order to define the boundaries of each conservation area.
The heritage values identified in each area directly informed the planning guidelines for these areas. Residential amenity characteristics were distinguished from heritage values. The guidelines were structured in a way that would allow them to be included in a future Development Control Plan, guiding future development in a way that would not have a negative heritage impact on the conservation areas.
Location: Ku-ring-gai local government area, Sydney, NSW
Client: Ku-ring-gai Municipal Council
Project Type: Heritage Planning; Conservation Area Assessments