Heritage value

With the temperature cooled a more reasoned discussion begins

Marcus Letourneau is a heritage planner with the City of Kingston.

When does private property stop being private? Put another way, when do the collective rights of the community trump the rights of the private property holder?

The finer points of these questions and its broader implications got lost this past summer as a distinctive church that stood for more than century on Main Street was smashed to the ground. Amid the noise and rubble it was difficult to find more than shrill arguments and stark certainty among those gazing upon the scene of destruction. Most wanted someone to blame for the rude erasure of a comfortable, yet largely overlooked, bit of Main Street. Jim Sinclair (the demolition contractor), council and the property owners became easy targets. Even the Prince Edward Heritage Advisory Committee (PEHAC) was cited by some for failing to act to protect the brick church from demolition.

Only now, nearly half a year later, has the subject cooled enough to entertain rational and productive debate over whose rights rise above others to take place.

The time has come for a fuller discussion of the issues of heritage. What is it? Who defines it? What should and can be done to protect it?

To help facilitate this community discussion PEHAC organized a public meeting at Picton Town Hall to delve into these issues last week. They invited experts in municipal heritage protection from Kingston and Cobourg as well as the County’s own Peter Lockyer, who has enjoyed success in restoring the Glenwood Cemetery in Picton, to help inform the freshly charged debate.

Certainly the most provocative speaker of the evening was Marcus Letourneau—a young, brash and enthusiastic defender of the role of the municipality in preserving the places of importance. Letourneau is a heritage planner with the City of Kingston.

He began his talk with a list of the reasons why property owners are often reluctant to allow their building to be designated as heritage by the municipality. Much of the objection is based upon a perceived loss of control of a property that they alone are paying the mortgage upon.

Letourneau dismissed most of these concerns as myths. He says that heritage designation doesn’t typically depreciate property value nor does it unduly restrict property owners as to how to renovate or use their building.

But rather than get bogged down in the merits of the objections, Letourneau instead pointed to an array of court and Ontario Municipal Board (OMB) rulings as well as legislative support that gives bureaucrats the authority to override private property rights in order to protect heritage.

“The province cares about this,” said Letourneau. “Heritage is not a “nice to have.” It is now recognized as a component to building a successful and sustainable community.”

Others, however, worry about aggressive heritage committees “bulldozing” through property rights.

“How do you prevent a Heritage Advisory Committee from getting carried away?” asked one resident at the back of the room. He had had a bad experience with such a committee in Burlington. He described how the committee had made a series of hostile designations—declaring a property heritage without the property owner’s consent—including a property he had owned.

“What is the broader public good?” asked the questioner from the floor.

Letourneau acknowledged that there is a risk of a heritage advisory committee seeing everything that is old as heritage, but he explained that in Kingston and elsewhere those tasked to determine heritage value must use a standardized evaluative template—that the decision over what is considered heritage value is not left to the whim and opinion of small group of citizens or bureaucrats.

He uses a cultural resources management (CRM) template developed originally to evaluate archeology sites. Letourneau says the CRM has been adapted it to provide a useful and transparent guide in assisting council define heritage value.

Letourneau notes also that, legally and practically, the broader community must be onside with council when it chooses to designate buildings, spaces or districts.

“Your heritage program can’t alienate the community,” said Letourneau. “It must accurately reflect the wishes of the public.”

Steve Ashton offered a more nuanced approach to protecting heritage. Ashton is a planner, a property owner and retail businessperson, and a former councillor in Cobourg. “I’m a big believer in communication, rather than regulation,” said Ashton.

Like Prince Edward County the issue of heritage protection arose suddenly in Cobourg. About a decade ago the community grew alarmed as its Main Street began to change in ways many believed to be out of character with the historic town.

Since 2008 the local council has listed about 200 properties,” said Ashton. Listing a property is the first step toward heritage designation. “About 10 owners asked that their property be removed from the list but their requests were denied.”

Currently Cobourg has 540 designated properties and four heritage districts.

Ashton says he favours designating districts as heritage because “your neighbours all have to follow the same rules.”

He says the most troublesome aspect of Cobourg’s experience in preserving heritage archtitecture has been in regulating paint colours and signage.

“You really need to spend time promoting the benefits and creating awareness of the importance of protecting history in your community,” said Ashton.

Peter Lockyer underlined the importance as seeing heritage as a competitive advantage—in tourism, economic development and a place to invest.

“We need to do a better job of making the business case for history,” said Lockyer. “There is a large market for history and there is a lot of money being spent on historic attractions. But we aren’t mining it, packaging it and communicating it well enough. Lets tell our story to the world.”

Each of the speakers stressed the notion that heritage is not a renewable resource— that when it is gone—it is gone forever.

“You can’t fake heritage,” said Letourneau. “Authenticity is key. Your customers, visitors and residents can all tell the difference.”

Prince Edward Heritage Advisory Committee Chair Marc Seguin opens a well-attended public meeting in the Picton Town Hall. In the front row are Councillor Jamie Forrester and former councillor John Thompson. They were among about a half dozen councillors and former councillors in attendance.