Rockcliffe Park is a…

Rockcliffe Park is a heritage conservation district in Ottawa. Dating from 1864, Rockcliffe Park is one of the earliest planned communities in Canada. It is a heritage gem and an asset to the nation’s capital. Generations of residents have worked without stint over the last 158 years and we now submit our comments on the proposed review of the Provincial Policy Statement as it pertains to heritage protection.

Protecting the province’s heritage is not easy – it is a constant struggle. The government states that its review of the PPS includes the intent to continue to protect cultural heritage. With respect to cultural heritage, it says it is seeking to establish “policy direction that provides for the identification and continued conservation of cultural heritage resources while creating flexibility to increase housing supply.”

Two things are paramount if the province’s cultural heritage is to be protected and not needlessly traded off and lose out in the pre-eminent quest to address the Province's housing needs. Heritage buildings and heritage districts make up very little of the land area of Ontario and need not be threatened.

First, the statement in the existing PPS that “Significant built heritage resources and significant cultural heritage landscapes SHALL be conserved” must be left intact if there is to be any hope of protecting the province’s cultural heritage. This means “should” cannot be substituted for “shall”.

Second, a clear succinct statement is needed to explain what this means, namely: "Heritage designation is intended to ensure that all development is contextually appropriate, not to preclude intensification that meets this test. To ensure contextually appropriate development, elements of built form, including height, scale and massing of development SHALL conserve the defined cultural heritage value and attributes of the heritage conservation district as set out in its HCD plan."

This clarity will help to prevent varying interpretations of the government's intentions by municipalities, developers, and communities - and would thereby help to avoid overburdening the Ontario Land Tribunal with disputes about how the protection of cultural heritage is to weighed alongside other government priorities.