A number of questions were posed to staff at the February 21 PBEE meeting during the discussion on the Brooklyn College Hill Heritage Conservation District report. The following responses have been prepared by our heritage consultant and the City’s Senior Heritage Planner Stephen Robinson.
1. How many structures are there within the proposed designated area?
With a heritage district the Ontario Heritage Act regulates all alterations to property (meaning real property and all buildings and structures thereon) so the measure of structures is not a true accounting of all potential permits that could result. Assuming approximately two principal structures per property (house and a garage, workshop or shed of some sort) we can assume 360 structures. If we include driveways, fences, walls, gates or other physical boundary markers such as trees/plantings then these may also be included as features that are potentially regulated. The Act does provide for exemptions to certain classes or types of alterations so certain activities could be automatically exempted: rear yard decks, installation of new roofing materials, paving driveways, etc.2. How many of the properties referenced above would qualify for individual designation?
Within the proposed HCD boundary the following are the known or currently identified properties of potential heritage value:
– 7 properties with individual heritage designations
– 31 non-designated properties listed on the Heritage Register as having cultural heritage value or interest
– 56 properties identified in the Couling Inventory as being built before 1927Ontario Regulation 9/06 under the Ontario Heritage Act provides the test for individual Part IV designations. The three classes of criteria are: design/physical value, historical/associative value, and context. The Act requires that for a property to be designated under Part IV it must satisfy at least one criterion. Each individual criterion contains a number of subsequent combinations of sub-criteria or values. According to the Phase 1 HCD Study inventory work completed by the consultant, many properties within the proposed designated area could potentially meet one or more of these criteria, however without conducting detailed research on each property it is difficult to provide an accurate estimate.
3. How many of our comparator municipalities have existing approved HCD’s or have ongoing HCD studies?
The following information was derived from the Ontario Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Sport website (http://www.mtc.gov.on.ca/en/heritage/heritage_conserving_list.shtml) and also from an informal email poll of Heritage Planners in Ontario municipalities.Guelph’s Comparator Municipalities – Schedule “1”
Cities 100,000-150,000 PopulationMunicipality HCDs approved HCD Studies underway
Barrie 0 0
Cambridge 3 0
Chatham-Kent 0 0
Guelph 0 1
Kingston 2 1
Oshawa 0 0
St. Catharine’s 4 0
Thunder Bay 1 0
Whitby 1 1This shows that five of the eight comparator municipalities have at an approved HCD or at least one HCD Study underway.
It is also relevant that the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Sport has confirmed that there are currently 104 HCDs in full force and effect with a total of about 41 proposed, pending or on-hold districts. Toronto and Ottawa have the most HCDs – with 20 and 17 respectively. Approximately 18,000 individual properties are designated within Ontario’s 104 districts.
4. What is a ball park estimate of the potential costs of implementing this HCD if it was to be approved?
If an HCD was to be approved, the primary ongoing cost to the municipality would be the staff resource requirements associated with administering the heritage permit system. David Cuming (MHBC consultant for the Brooklyn and College Hill HCD project) has extensive experience with HCD’s throughout Ontario, and kept statistics for 7 HCD’s he had direct responsibility for administering in another municipality. Based on his experience, he feels a ball-park estimate for permit activity in an HCD the size of Brooklyn-College Hill could be in the order of up to 2 applications per month, requiring 1.5-3.0 person days of staff time per month. Whether this activity level could be managed by existing staff resources (one heritage planner) or require additional resources would depend on corporate and community expectations regarding the remainder of the annual heritage work plan and currently identified priorities (i.e. continuing to pursue a program of individual designations).
The Brooklyn-College Hill HCD consultant has also been asked to investigate incentive programs that could accompany the establishment of an HCD. The Phase 1 report contains a discussion around the types of incentive programs that could be explored and makes some preliminary recommendations in this regard. The decision to establish incentive programs and any costs associated with such programs would be entirely at the discretion of Council.
I hope that this information answers the questions raised at the 21 February PBEE meeting. Staff