On September 23rd Council meeting there is a report recommending that Council issue an intent to designate three properties in King because of their cultural heritage interest or value under part IV of the Ontario Heritage Act (OHA). I suspect that many persons will be surprised to know that two of them, if not all three, are not designated already. For a municipality that claims to value its cultural heritage it’s unbelievable that we have not done so already. Two of the properties are in King City; they are known as Hogans Inn and Locale. The third property is in Nobleton and is known as the Pringle House at 13092 Hwy 27. In Staff’s report there are the comprehensive reports identifying the heritage value of each of these properties and reviews how the properties meet a minimum of at least two or more criteria of historic/associative design/physical and, contextual values for heritage designation. (For each of the three properties a link is given where I have named it above.)
The urgency to designate these properties has been created by the changes to the OHA included in Bill 23. Each of these properties is listed which means that, just as is the case with any structure, if there is interest to demolish a permit for such is required. Prior to Bill 23 the municipality, upon receiving a application for demolition of a listed property, can initiate a process to designate in order to protect it. With Bill 23 these properties will no longer be listed as of January 2027 and they cannot be re- listed for five years. In that five years an application to demolish could be requested and the municipality would have no means of refusing it. As King considers these properties to have cultural value and wants to protect them designation is required.
As reviewed in the report there can be objections to the intent to register. At time of writing there is an objection to the property known as Locale being designated. The report reviews the process for dealing with this objection; and it reviews the process which needs to be followed to complete the designations.
I am very supportive of the recommendations. If you wish to make a deputation and/or make comments to Council please register with clerks@king.ca or send an email by noon Sept. 23rd. And you can make a post on this blog or contact me directly.
I was surprised to learn that we no longer have a qualified heritage person hired by King Township. Heritage is important and a qualified heritage person should be hired. Colin Pang was not really a qualified heritage planner, but he was useful. It is not good not having anyone qualified to advocate for heritage preservation.
I agree…we need heritage expertise; if we cannot recruit immediately we need to get a Consultant. Just to clarify…Colin resigned and is now working at City of Toronto in heritage.
We are also very supportive of the recommendations but are unable to make a deputation or make comments to Council as we are out of the country.
Nice to hear from your Peter.