The move is included in a Bill which will protect the historic East End hotel from demolition and ensure its ongoing operation as a pub.

Under the legislation seen by InDaily and set to be introduced to Parliament this afternoon, live music venues within the boundary of the Adelaide CBD will receive protections, with the Bill amending the Planning, Development and Infrastructure Act 2016 (PDI Act).

The amendment Bill was drafted after the state government and Singapore developer Wee Hur Holdings Ltd struck a landmark agreement earlier this month.

Wee Hur’s plans to gut the Grenfell St pub for a 19-storey student housing block sparked a community backlash,protests and debate about planning laws, cultural heritage and Adelaide’s status as a UNESCO City of Music.

Premier Peter Malinauskas announced the deal to save the pub at a second public rally at Parliament House, vowing to introduce “special-purpose legislation to secure the long-term future of the Crown and Anchor Hotel as a live music venue and provide ongoing protection for key live music pubs in the City of Adelaide against noise complaints from future residents”.

InDaily can today reveal that the entire Adelaide CBD has been designated as a “live music venue area”, granting special protections to venues inside the zone.

The entire CBD will be designated a ‘live music venue area’ under the new Bill.

The Bill will specify that when approving new residential developments within 60 metres of a boundary of a live music venue in the CBD, a condition will be imposed that the development must include “noise attenuation measures”.

The noise reduction measures are yet to be drafted but InDaily understands they will likely reflect existing requirements in the Planning and Design Code. Planning Minister Nick Champion – who will introduce the Bill this afternoon – will publish the measures on the SA planning portal once finalised.

But the noise reduction measures only apply to new residential buildings, and do not include the development of hotels, motels, or “any other form of temporary residential accommodation for valuable consideration”.

The core component of the Bill is the protection of the Crown and Anchor Hotel as a live music venue and from partial or full demolition.

The Bill, if passed, will ensure that development authorisation must not be granted for a proposed development involving the “whole or partial demolition of the Crown and Anchor Hotel building; or development involving the addition of 1 or more storeys above the Crown and Anchor Hotel building; or a change in the use of the Crown and Anchor Hotel land”.

Further, the venue will no longer be protected under State Heritage rules.

“The Heritage Places Act 1993 does not apply in relation to any place on the Crown and Anchor Hotel land and, on the commencement of this subsection, any State Heritage Place on the Crown and Anchor Hotel land is taken to cease being a State Heritage Place,” reads the Bill.

“Any such place on the Crown and Anchor Hotel land is taken to have been removed from the South Australia Heritage Register.”

The Crown and Anchor is currently under provisional heritage protection while State Heritage Listing is being considered, but that process will end if the Bill is passed. However, the venue and pub will remain a place of local heritage.

The Heritage Places Act will also not apply to any place on the land surrounding the Crown and Anchor.

The newest design for the Wee Hur development saves the Cranker, and in exchange can be built higher and quicker. Photo: supplied.

The ending of the state heritage assessment process – which had meant that the State Commission Assessment Panel (SCAP) could not assess Wee Hur’s development application until a decision was made – means that SCAP will be able to assess any new and revised Wee Hur development application.

The Bill also dictates the maximum building height of 101 metres and 29 storeys for the proposed Wee Hur Holdings student accommodation tower, set to take over the land currently housing venues Roxies and Chateau Apollo, sited next to the Crown & Anchor.

These changes to the design of Wee Hur’s student accommodation tower were conceded as part of a trade-off to preserve the pub. The new design is 10 storeys higher than originally proposed, with the state government also telling the developer that its new development application will be assessed by SCAP within 10 days of being lodged.

Wee Hur Holdings Ltd will partially demolish and restore the Crown & Anchor’s live music room for soundproofing – an act permitted by the Amendment Bill.

The legislation also sets out that the pub is to close for a maximum two years to allow for the soundproofing and building works, along with construction of the student accommodation tower next door, with the conditions to be attached to any development approval from SCAP.

When announcing the deal, the government said the hotel’s current operator will be given first right to return to the venue when works are completed.

In the meantime, the venue’s publican Tom Skipper is working with the state government to find a temporary home for the Crown and Anchor.

Skipper told InDaily earlier this month that if a temporary home was not found the business and dozens of jobs would not survive the two-year closure.

“There’s no way that we could afford to have a two-year shutdown and it would be a blow to the live music industry, a blow to my staff, the 71 staff on my payroll,” he said.

“You know, first and foremost, I want to look after them and find a home for it.”

Crown & Anchor supporters suggested the vacant former Producers Hotel – next to Tandanya at the eastern end of Grenfell St and a popular live music venue in the 1980s and 90s – as a potential temporary venue. However, as revealed by InDaily, work has just begun to repurpose the former pub into a drug and alcohol rehabilitation centre.

The vacant former Producers Hotel on Grenfell St. Photo: Dave Eccles/InDaily

When announcing the deal at the Save the Cranker rally earlier this month, Malinauskas said: “Together, we’ve saved the Cranker”.

“This is a good example of democracy at work,” he said.

“Wee Hur investing tens of millions of dollars into building a brand-new student accommodation facility, which we desperately need, but at the same time, preserving the Crown & Anchor Hotel, which is a pretty key cultural institution, particularly for live music within our city.

“The other element, of course, is trying to provide more protection for live music in our city, beyond just the Cranker.

“Our bill will do that by establishing clear rules that make it clear, if you want to develop a site next to a pub that plays live music, then you have to factor in there will be live music in that venue for a long time to come.”

Malinauskas shaking the hand of Save the Cranker chair Evan Morony in front of a crowd at Parliament House after announcing the deal to save the Cranker. Photo: Helen Karakulak/InDaily

Save the Cranker board member Patrick Maher today told InDaily that his team was pleased with the wording of the Bill.

“The entire structure of the PDI Act is it enables the creation of the Planning Code which is ultimately a Ministerial declaration. This is no different – there’s no other way to do it, it makes perfect sense,” Maher said.

As part of the Bill, one clause permits the development of the Crown and Anchor if the Minister conducts public consultation for four weeks.

Maher said this was necessary because “we need that capacity for the pub to breathe and grow”.

“There needs to be a way to facilitate some development because development doesn’t mean knocking it down – it means fixing a wall or replacing a door that fell off,” he said.

“I think a lot of people will read this and go ‘Oh my God, the Minister’s got control of this whole thing’. Well, he has to.

“My initial response was that I would’ve worded it differently, but having read it a couple of times I think it’s fantastic.”

Rally attendees in Victoria Square. Photo: Helen Karakulak/InDaily

Maher also described the clause extinguishing State Heritage protection for the Cranker as a “reset”.

“At the moment, we’ve got the existing development proposal in play which hasn’t been assessed yet, we’ve got the State Heritage place assessment which hasn’t gone ahead yet either,” Maher said.

“In order for us to move forward, and for Wee Hur to move forward and for the Government to move forward, we need to have a bit of a hard reset – and this is the way that they’re going to achieve that.”

Maher said the designation of the entire CBD as a ‘live music venue area’ was “an absolute boon”.

“We’re really happy about that because live music is not restricted to those traditional entertainment zones; it’s something that happens in any pub, it’s something that can happen in a wine bar, it happens in fringe venues,” he said.

“The fact that the entire city is protected now, and any venue within that zone can apply to be protected by these new noise attenuation regulations, is fantastic.”

Save the Cranker campaigners will attend parliament to witness the Bill’s introduction.

Maher said the campaign’s focus would now be “keeping an eye” on the passage of the Bill, after which the group will transition into “more of an observation role”.

“Keeping everyone honest to these promises and to the new legislation that’s being put in place to make sure that we do get the outcome that we fought so hard for,” he said.