Sink or swim for historic Jenner House

The heritage value of Jenner House in Potts Point is on the line, after the majority of City of Sydney Councillors voted in favour of its redevelopment last week.

Two new buildings and a four-car stacker will now be added to the heritage listed villa, and two swimming pools could soon follow- a final decision will soon be made by Lord Mayor, Clover Moore.

Jenner House was designed by Australian architect Edmund Blanket in the 1860s.

“There are so few heritage houses around, we should be ensuring that they’re maintained as they are…[otherwise] they are degraded from their heritage value.” Said Greens Councillor Irene Doutney.

Councillors Meredith Burgmann and Irene Doutney were the only councillors who voted against the redevelopment.

Clr Doutney told The City News she was concerned the new design would destroy the heritage value of the building.

She strongly objects the proposed swimming pools, worried about impact the construction  would have on the house’s existing structures, particularly its heritage-listed garden built in the 1930s.

“They (architect and owner) have already decided that they can prove that there is no heritage value in the garden which means that they can whack in their swimming pool,” said Clr Doutney. “It doesn’t make sense. It’s total overkill.”

The owner of Jenner House, Tony Peterson, defended his decision and said the large area of land permitted the construction of a pool.

Mr Peterson said he was very pleased that the City of Sydney Council had approved the development application.

“It’s [been] a very long process but I think everyone is very happy with it,” he said. “The impression I got from the Council meeting was that the Mayor and a vast majority of the Councillors were extremely happy with the decision as well.”

Mr Peterson said his DA had also been approved by the NSW Heritage Office and the City of Sydney’s Heritage Department.

Clr John McInerney said he voted for the development application as it was the best out of a series of DAs and they conformed to the recommendations of a Heritage Advisory Committee, which was set up after past rejections.

“We could have refused it but if we had, then the building [which] is in fairly poor shape at the moment, would have deteriorated further,” he said. “This decision will preserve, by far, the bulk of the building…and make it far more attractive than it is at the moment.”

Cnl McInerney said he expected a final approval to be reached in the coming weeks.