🔵 Up or out for Mosman?

HEARD THIS WEEK👂

☀️ How do you install solar on a heritage home?

If there’s one thing the North Shore has more of than quaint, heritage listed houses, it’s rooftop solar panels.

In the last decade, solar installations across local LGAs have risen to around 30 percent of homes in the northern suburbs. But in some suburbs, strict heritage protections are preventing residents from powering their home with the sun.

Clashing styles: Substantial upgrades and renovations — such as solar panels — to heritage listed homes typically require Development Application approval, a process which can take months and cost thousands of dollars.

The issue is particularly pointed in Hunters Hill, where more than 70 percent of the suburb is a heritage conservation area.

Data from the Australian PV Institute — who track solar uptake across the country — show Hunter’s Hill Council has the lowest amount of total residential solar installations of any North Shore council, sitting at just under 1,000.

What they’re saying: Mayor Zac Miles told the Lorikeet these protections “should not deter our residents from installing solar technology”.

The council is currently drafting guidelines that would allow residents to install solar panels on heritage listed houses, without going through a burdensome DA process.

How does it work: The guidelines seek to encourage residents to install solar on the side and back of their homes, facing away from main streets and waterfront areas. If these panels are installed according to guidelines, residents will not have to apply for a DA. These guidelines include:

• Installation of panels in orderly rows and patterns symmetrical with the roof pane

• Panels are mounted at the same angle as the roof

• Are no closer than 30cm to a roof’s edge

• Protrude no more than one metre from the roof pane

Provisions are also made for the installation of home batteries, provided they do not face the main street frontage of a house.

Read the full story here, or watch our explainer below.

🏗️ Up or out for Mosman?

Unhappy with the state government’s plans for increased housing, Mosman Council has put forward its own vision for 4,700 new homes in the area.

We explain what both plans will look like.

🏢 🏢 456 apartments in two towers: Pitch to transform Lane Cove River site

Land bordering the Lane Cove River, once used for industrial warehouses isolated among the bushland, may one day be known for high-rise accommodation and data centres.

What happened: Under a State Significant Development lodged by developer Epic Doncaster, two high rise towers — one of 23 storeys and the other of 16 — would sit along the river near Epping Road.

The DA seeks rezoning of land along the river from general industrial to mixed use residential, and to increase height limits from 18 metres to 100 metres.

The 9,128-square-metre site was bought by Epic Doncaster for $27.8 million in 2015.

Read the full story below.

LOOKING NATIONALLY 👀

🎰The government earns a pretty penny from the pokies

Last week Archie had a look at who owned the hotels that made the most from pokies in New South Wales and Victoria.

Yesterday, he looked at who else is making money from the estimated $32 billion Australians lose to gambling every year.

In each of the state and territory budget papers, the governments show how much they expect to receive from gambling revenue that year.

A majority also break it down, revealing how much of the revenue comes exclusively from electronic gaming machines (pokies).

Watch the video below for the full story.