Waverley Council moves to protect shule
Sydney’s Waverley Council has passed a motion to protect the Flood Street shule.
Sydney Yeshiva Centre
Part of the complex was designed by renowned architect Harry Seidler, but an entity controlled by Harry Triguboff wants the property rezoned, allowing it to be a residential building.
Council last night decided to lodge the interim heritage order for 34-36 Flood Street with Heritage NSW.
It is planning to engage an independent heritage expert to undertake a heritage assessment of the site’s synagogue, which was designed by Harry Seidler.
Council officers have been directed to prepare a report to Council on whether the building should be nominated for inclusion in Schedule 5 (heritage items) of the Waverley Local Environmental Plan 2012 and the State Heritage Register.
In July last year, Council refused a spot rezoning request by the Triguboff company, which owns the land for 34-36 Flood Street, Bondi, to rezone the site from SP2 Infrastructure to R3 Medium Density Residential
The New South Wales Department of Planning and Environment provided provisional Gateway approval for the spot rezoning of the site in spite of the Council’s refusal.
Harry Triguboff Photo: Ingrid Shakenovsky
In a statement to J-Wire, developer Harry Triguboff said: “It must be noted that our planning proposal has been supported by the regional planning panel which aligned with the original support from Council staff at Waverley Council.
For decades I have been solely responsible for the funding and management of the Yeshiva. Nobody objecting to the rezoning (only 15 original submissions from over 10,000 Jewish people in Bondi) ever came to me and said how important it is and wanted to contribute. When I bought the site, it was neglected and in a state of disrepair after years of neglect and I fixed it. Nobody else.
When Council wouldn’t support us, they never raised heritage but these orders are used by politicians to stop development they don’t like. We are reviewing the claims of heritage value and will respond accordingly but initially, we do not support the claims. We can’t have ad hoc heritage claims everywhere. Mr Seidler was a very good architect but that doesn’t mean every one of his buildings must be listed to the detriment of the private owner. The City of Sydney also rejected similar claims as per the below article and claimed some of the buildings were “detracting” and “intrusive”.
The current Special Purpose (SP2) zoning over the synagogue and house on Anglesea Street is wrong. It only allows education facilities and prohibits the Synagogue, the OBK and the use of the house. Furthermore, the SP2 zone is only intended to be used for major public infrastructure like sewerage pumping stations, cemeteries, hospitals, dams, power stations, landfill sites, jails and airports that can never be anything else
The rezoning seeks to apply the correct zoning as per state government guidelines which state it must be residential like everyone around us. The other half of the site is already zoned correctly so this will have the correct zoning over all of the site. The correct residential zoning will validate the existing uses and allow other improvements like child minding centres which would help the current uses be preserved.”
Over many many decades Mr Harry Triguboff AO very generously supported the Yeshiva College and the activities of the Chabad Lubavitch movement in NSW.
Approximately 20 plus years ago, the activities at Flood Street started to implode, the tragic story in detail is far beyond the scope of this letter.
As a result of the downfall the majority of the community eventually found a temporary home in the social hall in the back of the Adass Israel Synagogue on Penkivil Street, Bondi.
On a recent visit to Sydney, I went to Penkivil Street and found the congregation praying in very unpleasantly packed conditions, in fact many members were standing out the back doors praying in the cold and rain .
The synagogue at Flood Street was beautiful renovated by Mr Triguboff in recent years, it is a totally under utilized asset and “seeks a community”.
Yeshiva Synagogue was built by Mr Abraham Rabinovitch of Blessed Memory and a group of Holocaust survivors who were determined to transplant the vibrant Orthodox traditions of the Central and Eastern European communities of their birth, it was not an easy task however they were very successful.
It would be a complete travesty if the iconic House of Prayer was destroyed.
I beseech the Sydney Jewish Community, a community of enormous resources to help the Chabad Lubavitch membership to return to its Flood Street home.