Heritage helps Elm Grove escape development

By GABRIELLE ADAMS
PROPERTY owner Paul Carmody is glad that his four-year battle with the ACT government appears to be over after his property, Elm Grove, has been listed as an ACT heritage site.

Carmody fought to ensure his property remains untouched during the establishment of the suburb of Jacka, which is to lie in Canberra’s north. This comes after the ACT and Federal governments announced a plan to develop 15 new suburbs in Canberra to cope with growing population in mid 2007.

The proposed suburb of Jacka was planned to lie in the middle of Elm Grove, which would see Carmody lose majority of his property to development.

“Since it [the Elm Grove property] was put on the ACT heritage register back in 2008 a very comprehensive conservation management plan has been prepared, as it had to be prepared, as part of the listing process,” Carmody said.

Carmody said that the ACT Government maintained that it did look into Elm Grove when it was designing Jacka to see if it did meet heritage requirements. Government representatives said it did not. Further investigation by Carmody found that Elm Grove meets four out of the 10 requirements for heritage listing. Only one requirement needs to be met to ensure the property is listed.

At this stage planning for Jacka is being undertaken by the ACT Planning Authority, with final boundaries yet to be determined. Following the registration of Elm Grove on the ACT Heritage Register, the ACTPLA deleted Elm Grove from the Jacka study area.

“It’s that conservation management plan which determines exactly what does go on the property and also in the areas surrounding the property so and any planning around the property will have to take into account the conservation management plan requirements,” Carmody said.

A representative from heritage consultancy firm Godden Mackay and Logan, Amy-Louise Guthrie, feels that lobby groups against development on heritage sites such as this one, are not able to have their voices heard against bigger development agencies funded by the government. “There’s a lot of community interest in heritage in the ACT,” Guthrie said, “…. a lot of lobby groups and things that are quite active as well as with the government…. they are trying very hard to do [something] but sometimes it’s just a question of money and the need for more development that sometimes wins out over heritage.”

Guthrie also noted the delay when it comes to entering properties on the heritage register.

“At the current state there’s what they’ve said to be a ten year back-log of nominations in the ACT heritage unit so sometimes they have to really rush forward some nominations to get the places listed if they’re in trouble from development,” she said.

This can then lead to other properties in Canberra being overlooked and losing their heritage land to development.