Corrimal Cokeworks developers have been rapped over the knuckles by Wollongong councillors, who say they have lost trust in the developer's ability to protect the heritage of the site.
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Councillors voted to continue an interim heritage order over the old cokeworks, which was hurriedly put in place to protect the site in May, after developers went outside the council to gain permission to knock down structures on the site.
The site is being developed by the Illawarra Coke Company and Legacy Property, who have lodged a proposal build a 700-home development on the site.
This has prompted a significant amount of community debate, with concerns raised over the development's affects on heritage, environment, traffic and the character of Corrimal. Formal community consultation on the plan is yet to occur.
Labor's Janice Kershaw was scathing at Monday's meeting, calling the decision to engage a private certifier to approve demolition of some of the cokeworks structures "totally unacceptable".
"I'm disappointed to say the least," she said. "The community has huge concerns [about heritage issues] and the proponent goes and gets a private certifier to say they can demolish the structures on the site without all the formal studies in place.
"It takes away the trust that the proponent is trying to get the community to have in them."
While council staff had recommended that the initial interim heritage order could be rolled back, to allow for some structures to be demolished, Cr Kershaw said it was important that the whole thing was protected. Her motion to continue the terms of the original order and restate the council's strong commitment to preserving the history of the industrial site was unanimously supported.
Michael Williams, representing Legacy Property and the Illawarra Coke Company defended the companies' commitment to heritage. He said he did not think they had undermined the good faith between them and Corrimal residents.
"We accept that potentially the communication around it might have been better and we've apologised for that," he said.
"But we think our actions speak louder than our words, and we're not rushing out there as cowboys to try to knock everything down.
"And since council took the decision to put an interim heritage order in place we have been seeking to work constructively to balance the very real heritage issues on the site, but also the very real safety and security issues."
He said the private certifier's approval was simply to provide "flexibility".
"It's fairly common practice in the industry to obtain a consent that is broader that your intentions," he said.
"For example some of the runs of the coke ovens, they are very considerably long structures and nobody in the consultation has ever suggested that they would be retained in their entirety.
"So an approval to demolish might allow us, in the course of time, to demolish parts of those that are agreed. The intention of a broad approval was to provide us future flexibility, as we've quite clearly stated, Legacy and the ICC are absolutely committed to a robust process with council."
But Labor councillor Jenelle Rimmer questioned these intentions.
"I'm not sure how the proponents can say they have a commitment to the heritage significance when you want to demolish all the buildings," she said.
"You don't engage with a private certifier to demolish all buildings and then have an expectation that we will trust that you want to protect those structures.
"I understand that earlier this year, staff suggested the complying development certificate could be amended to only apply to the low significance structures, yet here we are at the end of October and no amendment has been forthcoming."
Leigh Colacino said he believed the housing development could be an "exceptional opportunity" for the old industrial site, but said this could not come at the cost of the region's history.
"The cokeworks are not a fantastic cathedral or an old council building or state building. But they are the history we have that's still clinging on to existence," he said.
"We cannot lose that contact with what made Wollongong what we are.... it's all got a direct lineage to the coal mining establishment that we had. We cannot afford to take a chance of losing that."