A FIRM plan for Kenmore Hospital’s redevelopment won’t be furnished to Goulburn Mulwaree Council until at least August. Consultants for new owners LAJC Energy Pty Ltd are still working on a master plan for the 78-hectare Taralga Rd site.
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Despite this, the Kenmore Hospital museum is already making plans to move out and disperse its massive collection. Alf Lester, director with integrated design company LFA Pacific, says he is not party to these discussions.
He’s simply drafting a master plan for the property.
“We are trying to maintain maximum flexibility (for the owners) and certainly entities like that (the museum) do fit in quite well,” he said.
“But it comes under the commercial banner of LAJC Energy.”
He told the Post yesterday that several parties were expressing interest in Kenmore, not just the University of Canberra. But there were no “big bang” developments in the wind, just people looking for office and residential space.
His firm has mapped out about 20 precincts for development. Some of these areas could host new buildings or have existing structures converted for office or residential uses. A retirement village, other institutional type uses, extensive landscape improvements including a river walk, are possibilities.
Mr Lester has also been talking to Goulburn Mulwaree Council about a public road within the complex, enabling continued community access to sporting fields, the cenotaph and other traditionally used facilities.
The precincts will tie in with a recently completed heritage study on the site, which hosts some of the country’s most significant architecture of the late 1800s and early 1900s.
Chris Betteridge, a former NSW Heritage Office employee, now with his own consultancy - Musescape - has completed the report.
Kenmore was declared a state significant site several years ago. The next step lies with the owners. Mr Lester said he had outlined various options for feedback from LAJC Energy Pty Ltd.
The owners have more options following the NSW Police College’s decision to vacate recruits from the former nurses quarters.
The 100-bed building on the corner of Taralga Rd and Wollondilly Ave has accommodated 60 to 90 cadets. But Mr Lester said the College had pulled out due to funding pressures, despite an ongoing need for off campus accommodation. He is planning to lodge a development application for the overall Kenmore site in August/September.