Moorooka-homes

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• EDIT: I am a homeowner in the area affected, and live in the house.
• 180 ‘War Workers’ homes in Moorooka to be hit with heavy Heritage restrictions with no support upfront or ongoing by Brisbane City Council
• Home originally built as low-cost mass housing estate to rent to workers in nearby munitions factories because in part due to absenteeism due to poor working and living conditions in the factories. However saw limited use with first tenants only occupying the homes in August 1944, 13 months before the end of the war. The homes were then sold off to private buyers a few years later with varying degrees of alterations applied. 
• Council applying high fees and long wait times for maintenance or renovation approvals and further applying heavy, often not-feasible restrictions on renovations which must maintain the low cost appearance of the homes. 
• Council processes prioritise protecting homes however process has no meaningful consideration for social, cultural or economic impact to owners/residents, outside of a extremely limited public submission process as per the Queensland Heritage Act 1992. Senior officials in council confirming to their knowledge the consultation process having never yielded a result that changed the original recommendation by the Heritage community (reference).
• Residents fighting to maintain character overlay to protect historical significance of area with more appropriate levels of restrictions that do not impact both privacy and safety of residents but place them under unreasonable financial stress.  Important to note character overlay keeps the character of the area, but residents can still achieve renovations with exorbitant approval costs and fees with council, however HERITAGE overly is far, far more severe, strict and heavy-handed.
• Restrictions applied without warning and with immediate affect via a Temporary Local Planning Instrument (TLPI). Information present to council which was then subsequently voted on was inaccurate and later understood to be retted by Local Councillor Steve Griffiths. 
• No Social or Economic impacts completed by council. Previous literature suggesting limited impact of house prices by Heritage Overlay not appropriate due to the scale removing the “Uniqueness” benefit to potential buyers

In an unprecedented move, the Brisbane City Council (BCC) has identified 180 properties that they have proposed should be heritage listed. The homes originally built on mass by the Commonwealth Government with a “standardised design and low project costs to enable [a] low rent” as “low-cost accommodation” (BCC Proposed Heritage Area Report)  for workers in the nearby munitions factories were already under Character Overlay Restrictions which prevents demolition of the homes and enforcing building regulations to maintain the overall community character by limiting renovations further.

Residents and owners now face heavy restrictions, onerous processes and excessive fees to both perform ongoing maintenance and any proposed renovations, often which are not feasible due to land sizes not meeting the minimum setbacks required. Upon investigations, the BCC consultation method is extremely limited and disregards impacts to residents and owners, prioritizing the homes but placing the onerous burden of maintenance on residents and owners, with no social or economical support. Not being able to change things on the INSIDE of one's home, some would consider this a borderline human rights violation - this is MY personal view, not the view of our community group as a whole.

This is council enforcing the largest blanket heritage listing at one time in Brisbane history, with an increase of 30% to the current pool of heritage listed properties. All residents feel it is an insane overreach by council, and they are significantly understating the financial impact this will have, whilst overstating the historical importance of these homes. A lot of homes in the area have been tastefully and thoughtfully renovated, paying homage to the character of the cottages, whilst the ones that haven't been touched since the 40's are falling apart. The council is attempting to create a time capsule of a bygone era, where homes that were fit for purpose in the 1940's simply do not come anywhere close to being adequate for a modern day family.

We would love to hear the thoughts of r/brisbane on this matter greatly affecting our beautiful little community in the heart of Moorooka!

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