Frequently asked questions

NSW has two main types of heritage listings known as Heritage Items and Heritage Conservation Areas. Heritage listings flag that a place or object has heritage significance.

Heritage items are buildings, relics, structures or places of individual value. They may include a house, outbuilding, farm shed/stables, road infrastructure such as culvert or bridge, church, cemetery, gardens or landscape feature etc or the remains or ruins of these things.

Heritage Conservation Areas (HCAs) are more than a collection of individual heritage Items; they comprise areas in which the historical origins and relationships between various elements create a sense of place that is valued and worth preserving. HCAs are identified by analysing the special characteristics which make up its heritage significance. This may include its subdivision pattern, the consistency of building materials or architectural style, the common age of the building stock and /or its social connectivity to the origins of its locality.

There are thirteen heritage conservation areas listed within Schedule 5 Part 2 of Lithgow Local Environmental Plan 2014.

Listing is the way our heritage items and places are identified and managed. It safeguards the environmental, economic and social benefits of this limited resource for present and future generations.

As with zoning, certainty is the driving reason for listing. By flagging our heritage items and places, listing gives owners and the community certainty about what is a heritage item or place. It provides advance knowledge about the approvals process, and confidence that future changes to listed items and places and surrounds will be sympathetic ahead of important decisions such as purchasing.

Listing avoids the uncertainty, delays, unforeseen costs and unnecessary conflict that can result when heritage is identified late in the development process.

By providing a balanced framework for managing change, listing keeps heritage items and places authentic, alive and useful.

• Listing does not inflexibly bound or “mothball” property.
• Listing will not stop all change or freeze a place in time.
• Listing is a beginning – the first step in protecting significant items and places – not the end result.
• Statutory listing protects heritage items and places in three basic ways; recognition, approvals and support.

Listing gives public recognition to heritage items and places under law. It will not change property ownership nor open private property to the public. Listing produces information about the history and significance of an item or place to help owners and communities understand and manage their property/places.

 Listing permits sympathetic development of heritage items and places through an approvals process. The process to gain approval ensures changes retain the significance of heritage places.

State listing normally prevents demolition and neglected maintenance. NSW listings do not otherwise prescribe how a place can or cannot be changed.

Any change to a listed item or place can be assessed for approval.

Changes are assessed on their merits when owners submit development applications. In this assessment, the relevant consent authority decides whether the proposed works or development will have an unacceptable impact on the significance of the item or place. Owners have an opportunity to submit their own assessment in the “statement of heritage impact” before a decision is made.

Listing gives owners improved access to heritage grants and free technical advice from local heritage advisors on how to make sympathetic changes. Listing also often allows a wider range of land uses for a property to be considered than land use zoning would otherwise permit, provided the land use can be shown to facilitate conservation objectives and sympathetic and adaptive reuse of the item.

Owners of heritage listed properties can request a “heritage restricted valuation” through Land and Property Information (formerly Valuer-Generals Department). If this results in a lower property valuation, the valuation will be forwarded to Council who will then levy rates based on the lower valuation. A lower valuation may also have implications for State Land Tax. Enquires on this matter should be directed to the Office of State Revenue.

Council may from time to time have Local Heritage Assistance Grants for

works that add to the heritage value of item or places listed.

Four main statutory lists contain heritage listings for places that are significant locally, state-wide, Australia wide and/or world wide.

Locally significant items or places items are listed in local councils Local Environmental Plans (LEP) in Schedule 5.   Lithgow Local Environmental Plan 2014 can be viewed on the NSW legislation website at: https://www.legislation.nsw.gov.au/#/view/EPI/2014/824

As well as being listed locally, State significant items or places are listed on the State Heritage Register on the NSW Office of Environment and Development website at:

https://www2.environment.nsw.gov.au/topics/heritage/search-heritage-databases/state-heritage-inventory

Heritage items and places can also be listed on non-statutory registers such as the National Trust of Australia (NSW). These registers do not carry any legal requirements, but are an indication that an item or place is considered to have heritage significance and is a valuable resource for investigation.

Yes it is possible, however uncommon. Council can delete an item form the heritage schedule of the LEP if it receives information from a suitably qualified source that an item is not as significant as initially indicated or the item has been incorrectly identified. This requires amendment to Lithgow LEP 2014 including public exhibition.

Depending on the individual circumstance, an application to amend Schedule 5 of the LEP may need to be accompanied by a heritage assessment and document justifying any request for deletion off the Schedule.

Yes, Council is open to suggestions for new items or places which may have heritage significance. The process to list new items or places is an amendment to Lithgow LEP 2014 via a Planning Proposal. Such amendment involves community consultation.

In the preparation of the Lithgow Heritage Study 2000, inventory sheets were prepared for items now listed. The heritage inventory sheets contain basic but useful information such as a brief history of the item, listings, a physical description of the item and where available a photographic image and a statement of significance.

These sheets are being  progressively updated with information received during the various community and agency consultation processes and will in time be made available through a link to the NSW Heritage Office Website.  In the meantime these sheets are available by contacting Council’s Development Assessment Team.

The inventory sheets provide information provided from a number of sources and  therefore the accuracy of these sheets may not be guaranteed. They act as a trigger or starting point for further research and investigation only.

The Lithgow Heritage DCP Study 2010 provides information for all listed heritage conservation areas including a description, a discussion of its heritage value, nominated heritage items with their status, policy recommendations, photographic data sheets and drawings analysing the location and setting of the HCA.

 If Council becomes aware of a property of potential heritage significance, which is NOT listed under the Lithgow LEP 2014 and is under immediate threat, it can make an Interim Heritage Order (IHO) over the property under the NSW Heritage Act, 1977 under authority delegated to Council by the Minister.

When an IHO is made it is an office to:

• Alter the building, work, relic or moveable object
• Display any notice or advertisement on a place or precinct
• Damage or destroy any tree or the vegetation on the land.

An IHO is valid for twelve months, giving Council time to investigate the heritage value of the place and if necessary prepare an amendment to the Lithgow LEP 2014 to list the item so that it is legally recognized as a heritage item. In this period, the NSW Heritage Council is the relevant authority for any development applications received over an IHO property.

Obligations as an owner of a heritage item are no greater than an owner of any other property, including normal maintenance and repair. The main difference occurs when a landowner proposes to make changes to the heritage item.

Yes, Clause 5.10 Heritage Conservation of Lithgow Local Environmental Plan 2014 applies. Heritage items are listed and described in Schedule 5 and shown on the Heritage Map. Heritage Conservation Areas are shown on the Heritage Map as well as being described in Schedule 5.This clause is a Mandatory Clause of the Standard LEP Instrument and applies in all LEPs across the State.

 No building can be demolished without development consent whether it is heritage listed or not.

If submitting an application to demolish in whole or in part a heritage item, such application may be supported by a heritage impact statement and justify the case for demolition. Demolition would only usually be supported if it can be demonstrated that there is no reasonable alternative.

In most cases, changes to a heritage listed property can be made if it is sympathetic to its heritage significance and setting.

Upgrading kitchens, bathrooms and services and rear extensions to meet contemporary standards are commonly approved changes.

Sympathetic development means undertaking changes to an item or place whilst maintaining its heritage significance. This may require retaining the form and architectural style of an item, such as retaining original roof pitch, materials, window placement and scale, setbacks and colour treatment or placing extensions at the rear of the building, which all play a role in maintaining and conserving the character of an item or place.

In most cases development consent will be required except for those that are listed as exempt development under the State Environmental Planning Policy (Exempt and Complying) Codes 2008. However Clause 5.10(3) allows the consent authority not to require development consent for certain minor development that would not adversely affect the heritage significance of the heritage item or place. In order for this to occur the applicant must notify the consent authority in writing before any work is carried out and Council will provide written confirmation.

Yes.

There are further restrictions on some development that would otherwise be exempt development if the land is a heritage item.

https://www2.environment.nsw.gov.au/topics/heritage/search-heritage-databases/state-heritage-inventoryComplying development cannot be undertaken on land that contains a heritage item/s. Further complying development specified for the General Housing Code or Rural Housing Code cannot be undertaken on land within a heritage conservation area.

Further detail is provided in State Environmental Planning Policy (Exempt and Complying) Codes 2008.

Heritage listing applies to the whole of the building and/or land as described in Schedule 5 of the Lithgow LEP 2014. It includes any element upon that land that contributes to the heritage significance of the item. This may include internal detailing, floor layouts, external setting of an item including gardens, fencing and landscaping and relationship to other buildings.

Heritage management document means:

(a) a heritage conservation management plan, or

(b) a heritage impact statement, or

(c) any other document that provides guidelines for the ongoing management and conservation of a heritage item, Aboriginal object, Aboriginal place of heritage significance or heritage conservation area.

Heritage conservation management plan means:

A document prepared in accordance with guidelines prepared by the Division of the Government Service responsible to the Minister administering the Heritage Act 1977 that documents the heritage significance of an item, place or heritage conservation area and identifies conservation policies and management mechanisms that are appropriate to enable that significance to be retained.

Heritage impact statement means a document consisting of:

(a) a statement demonstrating the heritage significance of a heritage item or heritage conservation area, and

(b) an assessment of the impact that proposed development will have on that significance, and

(c) proposals for measures to minimise that impact.

A heritage management document is usually required to be prepared when considering changes to a heritage item or to a property in the vicinity of a heritage item or place or within a heritage conservation area.

There will be varying levels of complexity required for these documents depending on the scope and scale of the development proposed.

 Yes. Clause 5.10 of the Lithgow LEP 2014 applies to development on sites in the vicinity of a heritage item. Council may require a heritage management document to be prepared to assess the extent to which the carrying out of development in the vicinity of a heritage item or a heritage conservation area would affect the heritage significance of the item or area.

There will be varying levels of complexity required for this documentation depending on the scope and scale of the development proposed.