LALOR residents have won their fight against a heritage planning scheme overlay on their homes which they feared would devalue property.
About 100 people bearing placards saying “no heritage overlay” crowded the Whittlesea council chamber, spilling into the hall at council’s meeting last week.
They broke into applause when Cr Kris Pavlidis’ motion scrapping the heritage proposal on the area known as the Peter Lalor Co-Operative Housing Estate was carried unanimously.
Councillors rejected an officer’s recommendation that because the overwhelming opposition of residents could not be resolved, the council ask the Planning Minister Matthew Guy to convene an independent panel to deal with the case.
Of the 135 submissions from people within the approximately 140-house estate, only three supported heritage controls. Objectors claimed the controls on the post-WWII houses would stop them demolishing and rebuilding or making alterations to their homes.
Local mother of two Bindu Sharma led the fight, organising petitions, helping the elderly object and tracking down the owners of rental properties on the estate, as well as meeting the planning minister’s advisers and ward councillors.
“People power has won,” she said.
“I became involved because what was happening to my family, was happening to everyone.
“Councillors have listened to our concerns that the heritage overlay would affect what we could do now and in the future.”
She said the two-bedroom homes were 60 years old and not architecturally worthy or designed for modern lifestyles.
Cr Pavlidis said after the council meeting that people had bought houses in the area not knowing there could be restrictive heritage overlays.
“These houses are not public assets, these are private homes that we would have been imposing restrictions on,” she said.
“The community was passionate about how this would affect them personally and financially, and the future of their family home.”
She said council officers would now consider other ways to promote the historic significance of the area.
