CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story attributed quotes to Steve Burke, NOTL’s manager of policy and heritage planning, that were actually attributable to Christophe Rivet and founder of Cultural Spaces. We apologize for the error.
The Town of Niagara-on-the-Lake is studying whether or not it should expand the heritage conservation district around many buildings centred around Queen and Picton streets.
The district would be put in to preserve the historical look and feel of that part of NOTL and protect it from significant alteration.
“I think it’s the right thing to do,” said Lyle Hall, chair of the Niagara Foundation, a registered charity that looks to protect historically significant architecture in Niagara-on-the-Lake.
“It should have been done earlier, but at least it’s being done now.”
The Queen-Picton area has had a municipal heritage designation around it since 1986, which gives heritage protection to the area from Prideaux Street and Johnson Street to the north and south and Gate and Wellington streets to the west and east.
What would change if the study were adopted is that the town would expand its protection to a much larger area, going from a large section of the lakefront to as far south as John Street West.
Kirsten McCauley, the town’s director of community and development services, says work to officially increase the heritage district area started last year.
“The work that’s been completed is doing the review of the expanded boundary to looking at heritage attributes and contributing properties,” she said.
What would also change are the dates of the buildings protected. In its study, the town showed which buildings would be protected by splitting the proposed heritage conservation district into three eras: The rebuilding period after the War of 1812 from 1814 to 1829; the period of economic and industrial growth from 1830 to 1859; and the peak tourism period from 1860 to 1914.
There would be 527 buildings in the Queen-Picton area total in the new boundaries, of which 257 are considered historically significant or “contributing” to the town’s heritage.
In February, the town put a one-year restriction on developments in the Queen-Picton area while the study is being completed, and the planning committee of the whole discussed the proposed expansion during its meeting last Tuesday.
The town is currently in phase one of three of its study.
Christophe Rivet, NOTL’s town consultant and founder of Cultural Spaces, said to town council last Tuesday that the boundary could still be developed, but the heritage of the whole area would still have to be preserved.
“This would not freeze things in time,” he said. “This is a guiding process … We want to protect the character of that district.”
Some residents may ask: Why is the stop date for the area at 1914?
Rivet said the period between the First and Second World wars was, architecturally, a more stagnant period in NOTL’s history, particularly when it came to the town’s physical buildings — this is why it was not singled out.
“The physical change is what we’re looking for,” said Rivet. “If there isn’t physical change, it’s hard to make an argument around that period of significance.”
The major concern from councillors in the government’s proposal is the omission of the town’s dock area from the heritage conservation district.
The area near Melville Street was once a marshland, and the construction of docks in that area in 1832 is seen as an essential part of NOTL’s history.
“It’s where Niagara-on-the-Lake started,” said Coun. Gary Burroughs.
Rivet responded by saying that the character of that area has changed sufficiently over time to no longer warrant heritage status.
Coun. Sandra O’Connor also echoed Burroughs’ concerns, though acknowledged the difficulty Burke had in justifying the preservation of the dock area under the technical definition of the act.
Beyond the concerns about particular areas, Hall said he believes that while this new study is a step in the right direction, it has to go beyond a study.
“Towns like Niagara-on-the-Lake are rare,” said Hall. “There are not a lot of places with buildings in Canada going back more than 200 years … It would be a shame if council didn’t put their weight behind their promises on heritage.”
The second phase of the study would involve planning to create the heritage conservation district, while phase three would involve its actual creation. There is no word yet on when either of these phases will happen.
In 2003, Niagara-on-the-Lake was the first municipality to be named a national historic district by the Province of Ontario.
The planning committee of the whole meets again on July 8 at 6 p.m.
