The Local Planning Panel will meet this week to discuss one item only – and that item is about a councillor’s business.
Under ministerial orders, such applications have to go to the LPP.
This application deals with Councillor Doug Eaton proposing to build an industrial storage shed at 464 Ruttleys Rd, Mannering Park – a 5ha site already home to an historic industrial shed, the Bulk Store Building.
The development proposes an industrial storage shed development comprising a Colorbond clad and roofed storage shed of 865sqm.
It would basically convert open storage space to covered storage space.
Eaton and Sons Pty Ltd use the site for timber manufacturing, storage, office and amenities according to the report to be tabled at the Thursday, July 17, meeting.
Central Coast Council staff have recommended approval of the proposal which would see the new shed constructed away from the heritage bulk store building.
The report states that the proposed shed will not reduce the appreciation of the visually dominant scale or character of the heritage building within the site.
“The site has limited visibility from places outside the site as a result of the vegetation, existing and proposed, between the heritage item and Ruttleys Rd allowing it to remain visible as a freestanding structure,” the report says.
“The bulk store building is significant locally as a representative example of a large utilitarian industrial building of the early 20th century which is historically associated with the nearby Wyee Colliery and which illustrates the practice of building relocation and reuse typical of the mining industry in NSW.
“It is a relic of the period of state ownership of electricity generation undertakings – including their fuel supplies – in NSW,” the report says, quoting from a 2009 Conservation Management Plan.
“It is a type of building which is unusual in its vicinity.
“The bulk store building at Mannering Park may have additional associational significance arising from its origins at another site, possibly the Harbour Bridge workshops.”
The LPP is being chaired by Heather Warton.
Merilyn Vale
