If realised, the proposal will resurrect a second block of former Catholic owned buildings in the precinct.

Last December Council approved Sydney investor Nicholas Daoud’s $17 million redevelopment plan for the former Marian College site in nearby Clinton St.

Now, local company Cartwright Verner Ltd, owned by Robert Rampton and Steve Jones, has lodged a DA for a 39-room motel, seven residential villas and a 13-lot subdivision at the old St Patrick’s Primary school site in Verner St.

The $2.56 million project aims to convert a former hall into a reception area, function centre and restaurant.

It would complement the motel, to be built in one and two-storey blocks of 15 and 24 rooms respectively, near the Verner St frontage.

Parking would be contained onsite, with a new Verner St entrance to be constructed.

Behind the motel, six single storey attached townhouses and one detached villa, with an access from Cartwright Place, are planned.

Neither Mr Rampton nor Mr Jones returned requests for comment. However Mr Rampton previously told the Post there was a market for more motel accommodation and residential housing close to the CBD.

“It will have a nice frontage that’s sympathetic to the Cathedral and the precinct. We want it to fit in,” he said last June.

“It’s a good spot for it, close to the CBD where people can use shops, clubs and hotels but it’s also quiet, being off the highway.”

IT’S the second time the company has lodged a DA for residential villas on the site.

The partners withdrew an earlier application late last year after striking resistance from a rival developer and council planning concerns.

Residential is not generally permitted within the B3 commercial core zone. But at that time, the company was relying on flexibility in the LEP, allowing housing if it was within 50 metres of a residential area.

The developers have dropped that argument in the current DA.

Instead, it is counting on another provision in the LEP allowing residential if it “enhances the heritage significance of the item.”

It is the precise clause that Mr Daoud relied on for the Marian College redevelopment.

His project also includes villas on the site’s northen aspect.

In documents lodged with Council, architect Tim Lee, representing Cartwright Verner Ltd, said profits from the sale of housing would generate “the required funding pool for the ongoing maintenance and upkeep” of the former hall.

The company has been restoring this structure since last year, replacing tiles and strengthening the roof, cleaning out “truckloads of pigeon droppings” and clearing rubbish.

The old school has been vacant since about 1998 and similarly, the hall, which once hosted wedding receptions and other functions, has not been used in many years.

“The connection of St Patrick’s School hall to the development of Catholic education in Goulburn goes back to the 1800s,” documents stated.

“(It) is significant in the social and cultural development of the town. The proposed development around the existing hall has been undertaken to revitalise it as a place of public gathering by tying the proposal into the motel, as well as returning the hall to the original availability for use by the Goulburn community.”

Mr Rampton previously told the Post he wanted the development to “fit into” the precinct. Moreover, documents state that work won’t resort to “fake heritage.”

The company also wants to do maintenance work on another building on the block, 91 Bourke St, currently housing Fife Financial Planning, and to adaptively reuse an office structure on the corner of Verner and Bourke Streets.

But an old toilet block is destined for the bulldozer.

The buildings sit within the Heritage Conservation Area and are listed on the council’s interim heritage inventory.

The DA is on public exhibition until May 7 and public submissions are invited.