The plan to preserve the heritage found in Bond Head continues to be refined following the second public consultation of the heritage conservation study.
Participants in the virtual session heard from Amy Barnes, consultation manager with ARA, the consultants leading the study for the Town of Bradford West Gwillimbury, and guest speaker Dr. Wes Kinghorn, a London resident, who lives in a Heritage Conservation District (HCD) and whose academic work includes their study.
An HCD plan looks to develop guidelines and policies to manage future changes in an area of a community with historic character. Few places in Bradford West Gwillimbury – or all southern Simcoe County – have the history of Bond Head.
The village celebrates its 185th anniversary in 2022, with its recorded history stretching back even further, to nearly 200 years ago. At least 40 buildings in Bond Head are more than 100 years old, with several dating back at least 150 years.
And with the vast influx of new development planned for Bond Head over the next decade, the time is now to ensure its historic character can be preserved.
Municipalities have the authority to create an HCD that would provide clear policies and guidelines to best conserve and protect the character of the area.
Barnes spent the bulk of her presentation outlining the key elements of an HCD plan, including defining the plan’s key objectives, clear determination on the property status in the district, the overarching policies of the district, the guidelines regarding changes to property and the implementation of the plan.
While every building within the district boundaries will be considered part of the HCD, not all will be treated alike. The predominantly historic buildings in Bond Head will be considered “contributing buildings” as “they contribute to the cultural heritage value or interest of the HCD,” Barnes stated in her presentation.
Many buildings in the district would be “non-contributing” as they “do not add to the historical integrity or architectural qualities that contribute to the character of Bond Head.” They likely do embody some of the elements of a contributing building, Barnes added, but don’t share in the overall cultural heritage value.
“There is an important distinction between the two because different guidelines and different policies will speak to those different types of building stock,” she said.
Barnes also spoke about the types of policies and guidelines that could be included in an HCD. With his time in front of the group, Kinghorn was able to showcase how that can impact the residents who live there.
Kinghorn and his wife have lived in an HCD in London since the early 1990s. When they moved there, it was already an HCD, but it was also an affordable neighbourhood for them to purchase in. Since then, like nearly everywhere else in the province, property values have skyrocketed.
He stressed that potential future residents of an HCD shouldn’t be worried they will be living in a museum, with restrictions that make them feel like a “bug under glass.”
“When we just preserve an individual building sitting among a modern streetscape, it’s lost something that connects it to the history of the place,” he said. “It may have all the things that we hope for in a building, but the critical thing it’s lost is the connection to the people.”
Rather, a heritage district is “a living, breathing entity,” he said, and one that can change – but with context.
“This is not just preservation for preservation’s sake; this is preservation because people live there and there is a quality of life that is afforded by a Heritage Conservation District that we’re trying to preserve that goes above and beyond the structure of the buildings,” Kinghorn said. “Things that really matter in a neighbourhood will happen, but they’ll happen within a context.”
A survey has been launched to gauge additional public input on what they would like to see in the HCD and how stringent they think the regulations on changes to buildings within the district should be. Click here to take part before it closes Feb. 9.
