Built Heritage News

Heritage Preservation Services, City of Toronto, have recently produced draft "Policies and Terms of Reference for Designating Heritage Conservation Districts (HCD) in Toronto".

As part of the review of this draft policy, we are currently undertaking a process of consultation with relevant provincial and municipal agencies, professional practitioners and interested members of the public. The consultation meeting for interested members of the public is scheduled for 6:30 p.m., Wednesday, November 3, 2010 in Committee Room 4, Second Floor, City Hall, 100 Queen Street West.

Editors Notes: Several heritage consultants met recently with HPS staff. The general consensus was that the policies were overly proscriptive, and to meet these requirements would make setting up HCD's prohibitively expensive for community groups. Flexibility in standards is needed to deal with varying conditions around the City. The consultants asked the report to better recognize the partnership role of community groups with the City in the process of establishing HCD's. Several positive suggestions were made, such as reducing the number of prescribed meetings, developing common templates for different sections, and developing City of Toronto guidelines which could be universally adopted.