A small number of houses in Heathpool, in Adelaide’s east will be protected from demolition to preserve the character areas of the historic suburb.

The City of Norwood Payneham & St Peters is running the Inter-War Housing Heritage Code Amendment to address a gap in the recognition and protection of heritage buildings constructed during and between the First and Second World Wars.

The Code Amendment proposes the identification of:

• A new Historic Area Overlay within Heathpool.
• 20 new Local Heritage Places.
• 12 new Representative Buildings and amendment to one Representative Building.
• Minor rezoning of a block of six units in Heathpool from the Established Neighbourhood Zone to the General Neighbourhood Zone and removal of the existing Character Area Overlay.
• Minor rezoning of a specific property in Heathpool from the General Neighbourhood Zone to the Established Neighbourhood Zone.

The majority of the proposed Local Heritage Places are located within Heathpool, with the Code Amendment also proposing changes to heritage and character policies in the suburbs of Marryatville, St Peters, College Park, Hackney, Marden, Maylands and Royston Park.

The Council is concerned many of the nominated properties in the Code Amendment currently do not have demolition protection.

The State Government has placed the identified properties under ‘early commencement’ which provides interim protection, while the Code Amendment is under consideration.

This prevents any potential pre-emptive development or demolition on these sites.

This follows an appeal by the State Government to encourage councils to increase building protections to significant sites by elevating existing Character Areas to new Historic Areas and ensuring Local Heritage Place listings are appropriate.

The City of Norwood Payneham & St Peters has received $47,600 from the Government to support its important heritage code amendment work.