OTTAWA CITIZEN, By David Reevely

Hintonburg’s Magee House got closer to demolition Tuesday, as city council’s planning committee approved plans to tear the historic building down for public safety.

In July, one wall of the 1881 structure on Wellington Street collapsed. Engineers found that water had leaked into the wall and washed away mortar until its heavy stones came apart. Trying to repair the building — whose owner was occupying it — would be too dangerous and winter could do more damage and increase the risk of a total collapse, so the city’s planning department wants Magee House torn down by Nov. 15.

The city’s committee on heritage buildings reluctantly approved the demolition in a meeting last week. With the planning committee’s sign-off, the last step is for city council to rubber-stamp the decision at a meeting Wednesday.

In the same committee meeting, city councillors approved a new house on an existing lot in New Edinburgh where the owner, according to the city, tore down an existing structure instead of preserving it to reincorporate it into the new one.

The city is still looking at the possibility of charging the owner under the provincial Heritage Act, but that’s separate from figuring out what to do with the property now that the old building is gone.