One part of council wants to add the Wayzgoose building in Leura to the Mountains heritage list, another part wants to redevelop it.
And council’s own heritage advisory committee has asked it to reconsider the decision to redevelop.
At its monthly meeting on Tuesday, council considered a major review of the heritage listings of the Mountains, which recommended adding 68 new items to the heritage inventory.
The list includes the Wayzgoose building at 170-174 Leura Mall. The building has been owned by council for 50 years but has fallen into disrepair. The tenant, Mark Alchin, owner of the Wayzgoose Cafe, said he had asked many times for repairs to be done but they weren’t.
Last December, after receiving a report that said the 110-year-old building had reached “the end of its useful life… and requires major rectification or replacement”, council voted to redevelop.
The news came as a blow to Mr Alchin, who has operated on the site for nearly 14 years. In response he started a petition to save the Wayzgoose, which has now gathered just short of 9,000 signatures.
At this week’s council meeting, Leura Village Association (LVA) president, Barry Jarrott, urged council to support the building’s heritage listing.
Mr Jarrott said the LVA recently put together a “heritage trail”, a brochure featuring 12 heritage properties visitors could see on a self-guided walking tour of the town.
“The Wayzgoose building was an important inclusion in this trail,” he told the councillors. “Regardless of who did or didn’t do what [in terms of maintenance], the community that you serve wants this building saved.”
Another speaker was Ron Powell, a Leura resident who is also a member of council’s heritage advisory committee.
He revealed that Mr Mark Alchin had engaged an independent heritage consultant to advise on the building.
“That is way above what a normal tenant would do and shows the concerns and the extreme care he has for the building,” Mr Powell said.
He also said the heritage advisory committee was “disappointed that we’re not able to view the technical report” upon which council voted to redevelop.
This is the same report the Gazette sought under freedom of information laws, only to be handed a heavily redacted document, where all options for the building’s future had been blacked out.
Council is understood to be currently preparing a DA for the Wayzgoose building.