Heritage Conservation Areas in Dulwich Hill
In 2021, Inner West Council undertook a study of heritage and are now looking to extend controls following this study. This study only considers the opinions of specialist heritage consultants, and not the real world impacts of these listings.
The motion for this will be presented at the council meeting 6pm Tuesday 20 June at Ashfield Council Chambers.
What does being under a Heritage Conservation Area (HCA) mean for you?
Extensions visible from the street cannot be higher than the current roof.
You need a DA to install solar panels visible from the street.
If your home is exposed brick, you cannot paint or render it.
Restrictions on the colours you can paint your house and fence.
Overall changes will be subject to longer approval timeframes and may require you to pay for a heritage consultant.
There are many more requirements, listed in this document from Council.
Which areas are affected?
Council has provided the following map. If you were letterboxed, your house is in one of these areas. This impacts about 400 properties in Dulwich Hill. More details are available in this motion from Council’s agenda.
Broader impacts of HCAs
People can’t modify their homes to meet their needs (adding a bedroom, accessibility modifications), which means they have to move elsewhere. This undermines community cohesion because people cannot remain in place when life circumstances change.
If people are forced to move further out to find appropriate housing, this means more traffic, longer commute times and destroying native habitat on the urban fringe.
Barriers to installing solar panels make climate change worse.
What can you do?
Write to your councillors: copy the following emails into the ‘To’ field in your email client: Jessica.DArienzo@innerwest.nsw.gov.au, Mark.Drury@innerwest.nsw.gov.au, Dylan.Griffiths@innerwest.nsw.gov.au
Register to speak at council, cite C0623(1) Item 15 Inner West Heritage Program. The meeting is a Council Meeting on 20 June 2023.
Join Sydney YIMBY. We are a group dedicated to making our city more affordable, sustainable and liveable by making sure we have enough housing for our population. Find out more about what we believe on our homepage. You can also email us at sydney@yimby.au.