City heritage planners want the owner of a house linked to a pioneering Preston farming family to consider moving it instead of demolishing it to make way for up to 11 single-detached homes on the Fountain Street property.
A report from City of Cambridge heritage planner Laura Waldie outlines the findings of a heritage impact assessment (HIA) of 436 Fountain St., which is the subject of an application to rezone and develop the adjacent lands.
The rezoning would allow for 11 lots to be created with frontage on a private condominium road for future construction of single detached dwellings.
After planning staff recommended a scoped heritage assessment of the 1.4 hectare property last fall, it is now recommending the developer relocate the existing house and stone addition "to the west side of the existing lot, approximately 50 feet from its current location.”
The HIA determined the property holds “cultural heritage value” and warrants inclusion in the city’s heritage registry for its cultural interest.
The home, it says, has historical association with the Wismer family, a long standing farming family in Preston, and “also has contextual value in that it is connected to 19th century farming in Preston and it one of the last to survive in that area of the city.”
City planners are recommending the home be added to the register even though the owner has already rejected that idea.
Waldie’s report says council doesn’t require a property owner’s permission to add a property to the register.
However, recent changes to the Ontario Heritage Act, which came into effect on July 1, 2021, now give a property owner the right to appeal the inclusion of their property in the register.
If the recommendation to include the property in the register moves ahead at council, the owner would have 30 days to submit a notice of objection to the clerks office. In that case, the matter returns to council for reconsideration.
Council is the deciding authority whether a property remains on the register, or whether it is removed from the register.
If the MHAC disagrees with staff’s recommendation to include the subject property as a property of interest on the register, and chooses to recommend council designate the property, the decision is council’s.
Should council agree to designate against the property owner's wishes, a notice of intention to designate will be published whereby the property owner will have 30 days to submit a notice of objection to the Clerks Office.
The matter would then be referred to the Ontario Land Tribunal for a decision.
Three delegations, including a representative from the Architectural Conservancy of Ontario and a neighbourhood group, appeared before the municipal heritage advisory committee during its Sept. 16 meeting to discuss the matter.
The meeting is available to view on the city’s YouTube channel.
*** Editor's note *** a previous version of this story omitted a step in the appeal process by which council must reconsider a recommendation to add a property to the register after a property owner objects to its inclusion. CambridgeToday.ca regrets the error.
