Columnists
Buying a screwdriver
“You can’t buy a screwdriver in Niagara-on-the-Lake,” heritage consultant Carl Bray told Council’s committee of the whole last Thursday. That town has “got a beautiful shell, but it’s a hollow one except for the very wealthy. Everybody who works there lives in St. Catharines or Pelham.”
The lesson, which we in the County are eager to learn, is that strong heritage designation does not necessarily a great community make; in fact, it can unmake one, as people eventually get priced out of their own communities And a town in which only the wealthy can afford to live does not have much of a future.
The comments came during a meeting to approve the preparation of a plan for Wellington’s downtown to become a provincially designated heritage conservation district. Picton got similarly designated a few years ago.
Despite his comments, Mr. Bray is bullish on the returns from investment in heritage conservation. He told the committee that investing in heritage conservation results in community economic benefits that can repay the dollars invested by as much as 14 times, noting that cultural tourism is a growth sector, and opined that Wellington stands to benefit from the “staycation” mar- ket coming from the nearby urban centres.
Wellington is worthy of the heritage conservation district status, according to Mr. Bray, because it has views along its streets, a mature tree canvas, a concentration of civic properties forming an institutional hub, a compact commercial core, a linear development pattern, a settlement area between the lakeshore and agricultural land, and historical association with important people and events. (The report doesn’t list who those important people are. I’m guessing, therefore, that one might be the late actor Robert Urich, of TV’s Spenser: For Hire, or his wife Heather Menzies Urich, who played one of the von Trapp daughters in the movie The Sound of Music, but I could be wrong).
It was timely that at the same meeting the committee also heard a presentation of the first annual re- port from the County Affordable Housing Corporation. Things are on the move. In Wellington, the corporation has struck a deal with a developer to build 36 affordable housing units on the site of the old Dukedome on Niles Street—a mix of one- and two-bedroom units that would meet the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation standard for affordability. Construction is slated for next year and occupancy for 2023.There are environmental issues still to be sorted out, however.
(The affordable housing corporation has also made a proposal to a private sector partner to build 20 similar units on a site elsewhere in the County. As well, it is considering the implications of offers to make land available for tiny home communities in the County.)
Given the problems that developers have had with including an affordable housing component in their subdivision plans (exhibit ‘A’ being Picton’s Talbot on the Trail project), it is good to see an initiative in dedicated affordable housing. However, it can’t be a complete substitute for more integrated affordable housing. And it’s important for the future of Wellington that we get affordable housing right.
Plans are being put in place to allow Wellington’s population to quadruple over the next decade. Multiple developers have tabled plans to construct hundreds of new dwellings. Not all of their proposals will be good for Wellington, Even though the developments will not abut Main Street—the focal point of the proposed heritage conservation district—it will be a challenge to maintain the heritage character of Main Street.Thank goodness we have an Official Plan in place that addresses the desire to create a “livable community that contributes to creating a sense of place”; and that we have a secondary plan that presents a vision for Wellington Main Street.
And soon, hopefully, we will have a.conservation district to add to our hand, enabling standards to be set on building alterations and storefronts.
How will all the looming changes play out? I don[t know, but I do know I’ve got a test I want to do. I want to be able to buy a screwdriver in downtown Wellington 10 years from now.
The heart of Niagara on the Lake is in fact a Heritage Conservation District.- approved in 1986. I am sure that our columnist is taking on the role of the canary in the mine.