HERITAGE OTTAWA

The City of Ottawa's Built Heritage Sub-Committee (BHSC) meets monthly at Ottawa City Hall to review heritage applications and provide its recommendations.

There are four items on the BHSC agenda for Thursday, May 11.

Heritage Ottawa is asked to review and comment on applications that go before the Built Heritage Sub-Committee and on to Planning Committee. Our comments are presented below.

Designation Of Macdonald Gardens Park, 99 Cobourg Street, Under Part IV Of The Ontario Heritage Act

Heritage Ottawa enthusiastically supports the designation of this significant treasure in Ottawa’s landscape. Congratulations to all involved in preparing this proposed designation.

Read the City Staff Report here.

UPDATES:

• BHSC voted to recommend designation at its meeting of May 11

• Planning Committee voted to recommend designation at its meeting of May 23

• City Council gave its final approval for designation of Macdonald Gardens Park at its meeting of June 14, 2017.

Application For New Construction And Alterations At 83 Placel Road, A Property Designated Under Part V Of The Ontario Heritage Act And Located In The Rockcliffe Park Heritage Conservation District

Heritage Ottawa does not support granting of a construction permit in advance of the settlement of the legal case of demolition without a permit.  It is hair-splitting not to call this a retroactive demolition permit. This sets an extremely poor precedent for management in heritage conservation districts, and makes a mockery of the city’s own procedures.

Read the City Staff Report here.

UPDATES:

• BHSC voted to recommend approval of granting a heritage permit for new construction and alterations at its meeting of May 11

• At the Planning Committee meeting of May 23, heated discussion of this application led to votes on two different motions. In the first vote, 5 of the 9 committee members voted against issuing a heritage permit recommending approval of new construction and alterations. A second motion was put forward to explicitly refuse the application; this motion also failed by a vote of 5 to 4. As a result, there was no recommendation from Planning Committee to City Council on this item.

• Heritage Ottawa submitted a brief note to Planning Committee, stating that new construction should not proceed until the matter of demolition without a permit was settled through the Courts. Throughout its debate, the Planning Commitee made clear that it strongly disapproves of demoltions that bypass the process and policies in place for Heritage Conservation Districts.

• The item goes to City Council on June 14 for consideration. 

Application For Demolition And New Construction At 35 Lakeway Drive

Heritage Ottawa did not provide a comment for this application.

Read the City Staff Report here.

UPDATES:

• BHSC voted to recommend approval of the application at its meeting of May 11

• Planning Committee voted to recommend approval of the application at its meeting of May 23

• The item goes to City Council on June 14 for final approval.

Update - Heritage Matters Task Force

Heritage Ottawa supports progress on addressing demolition by neglect. The work of the Task Force, together with phasing out of tax breaks for vacant properties, as well as educational strategies, will go a long way towards addressing this problem, which represents a serious challenge to the protection and conservation of Ottawa’s built heritage.  Let’s not add to the problem by granting retroactive demolition permits (see above).

Read the City Staff Report here.

UPDATES :

• BHSC voted to recommend that Planning Committee receive the report 

• Planning Committee approved the report at its meeting of May 23
 

The Built Heritage Sub-Committee meets on Thursday, 11 May 2017 at 9:30 a.m. in the Champlain Room at Ottawa City Hall.

The meeting is open to the public.  Individuals can submit comments on any application item in advance, or can register to speak for up to 5 minutes on any item on the Agenda.

To send your comments or sign up as a speaker, contact committee coordinator Rosemary Theriault at 613-580-2424 ext. 21624 or Rosemary.Theriault@ottawa.ca .