Nine historic buildings in North Adelaide are now at risk of demolition after the SA Government rejected heritage listing applications, a councillor says.
The Adelaide City Council had been seeking heritage protection for the buildings which include a chapel and a mortuary.
"There is nothing standing between them and a bulldozer," councillor Phil Martin, who represents North Adelaide, said.
Planning Minister Stephan Knoll said his decision to withhold heritage listing was based on independent advice, and reflected the rights of property owners to pursue development.
"What I got was unanimous advice from the state Planning Commission that these buildings were not of sufficient merit to be heritage listed," Mr Knoll told ABC Radio Adelaide.
"I am not a heritage expert and it is my job to avail myself of all the information that the heritage experts put to me."
The buildings include the Lohe Memorial Library at the Australian Lutheran College, a former mortuary behind Calvary Hospital, Victorian-era cottages at Kathleen Lumley College and a chapel at St Mark's College.
"It's a gorgeous building. The absurdity of all this is that the school doesn't even want to demolish it. It wants to save it and renovate it," Mr Martin said.
"I would really like the minister to see those sites and understand the significance of each of them."
Mr Knoll rejected that suggestion, describing the cottages as "nothing special" and the Calvary mortuary as a "small and insignificant building".
He said there were already between 1,200 and 1,900 heritage listings in North Adelaide, with protections provided through its historic conservation zoning.
"We do need to balance this versus the rights for people to be able to develop their own property," he said.
'We know nothing about the findings,' councillor says
But the decision to reject heritage listing has also attracted the ire of Lord Mayor Martin Haese who said he was "deeply disappointed".
Mr Martin said there was a lack of transparency surrounding the decision to reject the heritage applications, with advice from a committee and the Planning Commission not publicly released.
"The process simply involved the Planning Commission consulting with a committee whose findings we know nothing about," he said.
"There is nothing now, unless the Minister agrees, that will save these places."
Mr Martin also alleged that the state's Heritage Council was not involved in the decision.
However, Mr Knoll said the Planning Commission consulted with "heritage people … experienced in the planning industry".
