Ninety-two Bradford homeowners could soon see their properties added to the town’s heritage registry, based on a scoring system from the heritage committee.
Committee of the whole recommended council direct staff to reach out those homeowners and begin the evaluation process based on a report from Thomas Dysart, senior planner, during the regular council meeting on Tuesday evening, Feb. 20.
In the report, Dysart explains that on Nov. 28, 2022, the province passed Bill 23, which included changes that would remove protections for potential heritage properties which aren’t fully designated by Jan. 1, 2025. As a result, the town’s heritage committee has been working on preliminary evaluation of the 386 properties on the town’s list of potential candidates for heritage designation.
“I would just like to point out to everyone all of the hard work that the heritage committee members put into triaging 386 properties in seven months,” Ward 3 Coun. and committee chair Ben Verkiak said.
The committee recommended a total of 115 properties as being the best candidates for designation after they scored nine or more out of 11 based on the following factors:
- Design value (score of 0-3)
- Integrity (score of 0-3)
- Contextual (score of 0-3)
- Risk of development (score of 1-2)
Of those 115 properties, 23 are in the proposed Bond Head Heritage Conservation District, which is being handled separately and for which work began in 2019 and was expected to move to in-person consultation in late 2022, according to the report.
However, Bill 23 also changed the criteria for those heritage districts and as a result, the report explains that both town staff and consultants will need to revisit the previous property evaluations, which Dysart estimates will cost about $15,500.
Out of the 386 total properties, the committee found 53 scored so low that they should be removed from the list of potential candidates.
Dysart explained the committee will continue investigating the remaining properties, but prioritized those which scored well, in light of the looming deadline.
To simplify the process, Mayor James Leduc wanted to amend the motion to direct staff to move ahead with evaluation for any property that scored seven or more, and remove all properties that score six or less.
“Time is running out. You only have 10 more months to go,” he said, but found no seconder.
The mayor did see success in amending the motion to remove the additional $15,500 in funding from the capital expenditures reserve for the heritage district consultations, requesting that the committee first use all of the $75,000 allocated during the 2024 budget before asking for more.
Only Ward 2 Coun. Jonathan Scott opposed the amendment. Deputy Mayor Raj Sandhu was absent.
Once the heritage evaluations are complete, staff and the committee can recommend council approve the heritage designations as was the case for the Bradford United Church on Oct. 17, 2023.
Recommendations from committee of the whole are considered for approval at the next regular meeting of council.
