By Andy Young
The Alexandria Hotel in Sydney has won a temporary reprieve from closure after the City of Sydney put a heritage order on the site.
Developers had put in a development application to convert the hotel into apartments, which was met with strong opposition by locals – as previously reported by TheShout.
That campaign saw a high number of comments to the council regarding the redevelopment, which resulted in the heritage order being introduced.
Sydney lord mayor Clover Moore said: "There has been a very strong community campaign. Around 470 submissions and comments about the development application were received by the City of Sydney."
Although the heritage order has given the pub a reprieve, it may only prove to be a temporary saving. Fairfax Media have reported that the developer has invoked a law which allows development proposals to be heard by the NSW Land and Environment Court if they are not finalised after 40 days.
Also even with a heritage order in place it might not save the pub, just the building. The court could decide that only the building needs to be preserved, which means the developer could still close the pub and convert it into apartments as long as the actual building remains.