Heritage Centre Wellington …

Heritage Centre Wellington (HCW) Advisory Committee, comments regarding Bill 23

There are a number of proposals that HCW agrees with, however we also believe
some will adversely impact our municipality’s ability to conserve our already
disappearing heritage resources. As a smaller community outside the Green Belt, we
are currently experiencing severe development pressures to infill the heritage areas
identified within our Cultural Heritage Landscapes (CHL) and to accommodate high rise
development within them as well.

We agree with the Architectural Conservancy of Ontario’s characterization of this
legislation in their press release of Nov. 10th, 2022 “As a knee-jerk response to a
vindictive attack by the development industry on our heritage system”.

Of particular concern, is the removal of all existing listed properties from a local
Heritage Property Register after two years from proclamation if they have not been
designated and not allowing them to be re-listed for an additional five years.

Additionally, regarding the increase of designation criteria from one to two criteria as it
relates to smaller towns and communities, it is apparent that we have less contextual
latitude to draw from then larger communities. We believe that a number of simple local
heritage resources may be excluded from conservation which would otherwise serve to
tell the story of the humble beginnings of our community if this provision is adopted.

HCW supports the points raised by Community heritage Ontario in their detailed report
on Bill 23, and feels they have captured our concerns in a constructive manner. We
have included a copy of it in our supporting documents, as well as the press release
from the ACO on Bill 23.

Moreover, we concur that heritage resources do not need to detract from growth initiatives as we have a number of examples whereby local heritage buildings have been thoughtfully re-purposed to accommodate residential units. As well, the majority of our downtown heritage core buildings contain available residential units above main floor commercial enterprise.

We urge the Minister to take these comments and concerns into consideration, as we
believe it is possible to meet the aims of this legislation without the sacrifice of
irreplaceable aspects of our culture and heritage. In order to have vibrant and
sustainable communities, we believe heritage planning and preservation can work hand
in hand with thoughtful and sustainable growth under the current guidelines.

Our heritage identity is essential in promoting tourism. In short, our heritage plays a major
role within any growth vision and cannot be disregarded or made subservient to
development and unrestrained growth.